Life At WDA
by YooniquelyOresum
Summary: Walt Disney Academy. The name says it all. This school is one of the most elite and prestigious schools across the globe. It is the most sought-after school by the rich, and the most envied by those who aren't so well-off. Kids from rich families from different countries fly from their native homelands to the small continent of Fantasia to attend the glamorous Walt Disney Academy.
1. Life At WDA

**Summary:** Walt Disney Academy. The name says it all. This school is one of the most elite and prestigious schools across the globe. It is the most sought-after school by the rich, and the most envied by those who aren't so well-off. Kids from rich families from different countries fly from their native homelands to the small continent of Fantasia to attend the glamorous Walt Disney Academy.

* * *

 **FRESHMEN**

 _Main Characters_

Alice Liddell _from Alice in Wonderland_

Arthur Pendragon _from The Sword In The Stone_

Eilonwy Llyr _from The Black Cauldron_

Taran Dallben _from The Black Cauldron_

Wendy Darling _from Peter Pan_

Peter Pan _from Peter Pan_

Nala Calame _from The Lion King_

Simba Pride _from The Lion King_

 _Other Characters_

Mowgli Bhandari, Shanti Arij _from The Jungle Book_

Lilo Pelekai _from Lilo and Stitch_

Vanellope von Schweetz _from Wreck it Ralph_

Koda Suarez _from Brother Bear_

Dash Parr _from The Incredibles_

Jaq Perrault, Gus Morris, Mary Gerson _the mice from Cinderella_

Tiger Lily Hao _the Indian girl from Peter Pan_

 **SOPHOMORES**

 _Main Characters_

Anna Arandelle _from Frozen_

Ariel Trident _from The Little Mermaid_

Adam Rosenthal _from Beauty and the Beast_

Elsa Arandelle _from Frozen_

Belle Beaumont _from Beauty and the Beast_

Jim Hawkins _from Treasure Planet_

Merida DunBroch _from Brave_

Mulan Fa _from Mulan_

Kristoff Bjordman _from Frozen_

Rapunzel Corona _from Tangled_

Tinkerbell Queen _from Tinkerbell Movie series_

Terrence Dust _from Tinkerbell Movie series_

 _Other Characters_

Woody Sheriff, Ben 'Buzz' Light, Bo-Anne Peep, Jessie Cowgill _from Toy Story_

Max Goof, Roxanne Martins, Bobby Zimmeruski, Stacey Cow-belle, PJ Pete _from A Goofy Movie_

Bambi Wood, Faline Bowen, Thumper Gould, Flower Baerg, Ronno Ghannam _from Bambi_

 **JUNIORS**

 _Main Characters_

Aurora Rose _from Sleeping Beauty_

Charles Charmant _the Prince from Cinderella_

Eric Rosenthal _from The Little Mermaid_

Ella Gertrude _from Cinderella_

Ferdinand Prince _the Prince from Snow White_

Flynn Rider _from Tangled_

Megara Thebes _from Hercules_

Hercules Olympus _from Hercules_

Hans Westerguard _from Frozen_

Snow White _from Snow White_

Phillip Royalle _from Sleeping Beauty_

Shang Li _from Mulan_

 _Other Characters_

Violet Parr, Tony Rydinger, Kari McKeen _the main character, boy Violet has a crush on, the babysitter from The Incredibles_

Wilbur Robinson _from Meet the Robinsons_

Quasimodo Hugo, Madellaine Lawrence _from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame_

Kenai Kapur _from Brother Bear_

 **SENIORS**

 _Main Characters_

Esmeralda Anderson _from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame_

Aladdin Ababwa _from Aladdin_

Giselle Adams _from Enchanted_

Edward Mason _from Enchanted_

Jasmine Agrabah _from Aladdin_

John Smith _from Pocahontas_

Jane Porter _from Tarzan_

Milo Thatch _from Atlantis_

Pocahontas Matoaka _from Pocahontas_

Naveen Maldonia _from The Princess and the Frog_

Kida Nedakh _from Atlantis_

Tarzan Forrest _from Tarzan_

Tiana Jones _from The Princess and the Frog_

Phoebus Knight _from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame_

Lady Dear _from Lady and the Tramp_

Trent 'Tramp' Bones _from Lady and the Tramp_

 _Other Characters_

Vanessa Miller _from The Little Mermaid_

Gaston Hunter _from Beauty and the Beast_

Charlotte LaBouff _from The Princess and the Frog_

Buster Hound _from Lady and the Tramp_

Jessica Reynolds _Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?_

Nakoma Sahni, Thomas Andrews, Kocoum Atwal _from Pocahontas_

 **Author's Note:** Hello people of the internet. This is yet another Disney high story added to the countless variety we already have on this delightful website. Now before you start groaning or rolling your eyes, I'm gonna tell you what practically every author of a Disney high fic has said: My story is going to be different. Though whether that's true or not, it really depends on you guys - the readers.

The only thing I can say is different about the story though, is that it consists of wealthy kids (which makes sense once you think about it) in a Private Boarding School. I've not seen many Disney high stories based in this kind of school, so I decided to give it a shot. I really do hope you guys end up liking my story because so far, I'm having a blast with this. The first chapter is still in the works, but it should be out soon.

~Till then!


	2. Once Upon A Time

**Disclaimer** : None of these characters belong to me. They all belong to the wonderful Walt Disney Studios...did I do that right? I've never done this before.

 **Word count** : 17,500. I know, it's super long. So sorry.

 **Dedication** : Josieoftherose and Demi Brackensick my only reviewers so far. Thank you so much, guys! Your reviews are much appreciated.

 **Date Updated** : August 27, 2016

 **Author** : YooniquelyOresum.

* * *

"Once Upon A Time" - _starts every Fairytale ever made...also the title of a T.V. show...which is also about fairytales...O_o_

* * *

 **.**

 _ **Friday, September 9**_

(Morning)

 **.**

Disney Village.

A nice town that was located in the southern part of Fantasia. While it wasn't a big bustling city, it wasn't necessarily a quaint little town either. Disney Village was small enough for everybody in the town to know anybody. Starting from fathers who worked in the mine or as high-school teachers, to moms that managed local family restaurants or small shops, even the kids, who had all attended the same school and probably been in the same class everyday of their lives since daycare.

Despite all this, Disney Village was still big enough to have a mall, its local swimming pool and library, variety of small shops and restaurants and of course, two major schools.

One of them was Grimm Schools. It consisted of elementary, middle, and high school. Virtually all the children of the local residents of Disney Village went there.

The other school though, was a different story entirely.

Walt Disney Academy.

The name says it all. This school was one of the most elite and prestigious schools across the globe. It was the most sought-after school by the rich, and the most envied by those who weren't so well-off. Kids from rich families from different countries flew from their native homelands to the small continent of Fantasia to attend the glamorous Walt Disney Academy.

The pristine walls of the school sat at the edge of Disney Village, close to the hill, giving off a beautiful radiance to the rest of the town. Moms and Dads of Disney Village were envious of the school as they were not as fortunate to send their kids to one that held so much pride.

A few of these parents, however, were lucky enough to send their children to the school due to rare scholarships. In Disney Village, having a child that got accepted into WDA through scholarships was a huge deal. Usually, such parents boasted about it at work, or in coffee shops, even at the market. Anywhere was convenient for them and they continued to talk about it nonstop, unless someone changed the subject of course, and someone always did.

One of these particular parents, a mom to be exact, sat in one of the coffee shops, _Wonder's Tea_ , one Friday morning, conversing with her fellow moms about her son who had maintained his scholarship since freshman year and was entering the senior class that following Monday.

"My Aladdin has been doing _so well_ in school these past few years," she said for the third time that morning. "Do you know he also managed to snag a _Prefect position_ in his sophomore year?" _That_ , she said for the seventh time.

The other moms groaned inwardly and tried not to roll their eyes. "Yes Kandi, we're aware of that," one of the moms spoke up.

"Yeah," another said with a more bitter tone than the first. "You've only said it like _twenty_ times!"

"Wait a minute," a third mom said with a smug look on her face. "Isn't that Flynn Rider?"

All the mothers turned to look out the window of the coffee shop. A brown-haired teenager ran past them with a wide goofy grin on his face. Not long after, two bulky redheads ran past, clearly hot on his tail.

The first mother shook her head disapprovingly. "What trouble do you think he's in now?"

"Say Kandi," the bitter mom said. "Isn't Flynn Rider a _good friend_ of your son, Aladdin?"

"Yes," the third one agreed with a similar tone. "Such a shame that your _studious_ and _hardworking_ _scholarship-son_ keeps such _bad examples_ as friends."

"Oh stop it you two," the first mom scolded.

"No Morgan, it's okay," Aladdin's mother said. "Flynn and Aladdin may act wild on the streets of Disney Village, _street rats_ you call them, but we don't know how they act in school. Seems you have forgotten that Flynn also attends WDA and they have both upheld their scholarships till now. I see no reason to not be proud of them."

"And Indy," the mom known as Morgan asked the bitter mom. "Isn't your son repeating the eleventh grade? I say you focus more about your child's behavior in school and less of another child's behavior on the streets."

That definitely shut the mothers up.

The said Flynn Rider raced down the streets of Disney Village. He jumped over a parked car, dove under a plank two men were carrying, and nearly knocked a child to the ground. He laughed as he turned around to face the Stabbington Brothers, only to find them far behind. He grinned as he tightened his grip on the satchel they were after.

All of the things he'd seen that day and it was only eight in the morning!

He turned around again, and started running backwards. "Is that all you can do?" he shouted to them. "Man, you guys are getting outa shape. The least you could do is at least give me a challenge to work with–" He was immediately cut off when he bumped into a girl and they both fell unto the hard ground. He stood up, helping her carry the books she dropped – and boy, were they plenty. Just how many books do you need? – and winked at her before continuing his run.

As he was doing so, he saw that the brothers had gained in on him with full speed.

 _Aw man_. Well, he _did_ ask for a challenge.

Close to panicking, Flynn gripped harder on the satchel as he searched frantically for a place to hide. His eyes then landed on a small little corner in a dark alleyway where some dumpsters were kept.

 _Jackpot_.

He continued running as fast as he could and looked back at the brothers once more. Once he was sure he was at a safe distance from them, he disappeared into the crowd of people on the streets of Disney Village and safely went into the corner, crouching down behind a large dumpster. He waited a few moments and when he saw the Stabbingtons' run past by him, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Sitting down with his back against the brick wall, Flynn opened the satchel to admire the item inside. It was a golden necklace. Now Flynn wasn't an expert in jewelry, but he figured if he sold the necklace online, it could be worth thousands.

"What are you doing?"

Flynn jumped in surprise, knocking the dumpster over in the process. He turned around, and instead of finding the redheaded demons, he found his dark-skinned female friend. No wonder the voice sounded girly. "Oh, it's just you."

The girl's eyes trailed to the golden object in Flynn's hand. "And what are you doing with that?" Before Flynn could give her an answer, she continued. "Flynn! I thought we agreed, _no more stealing_?"

Realizing he was still on the floor, Flynn got up and dusted himself, before putting the necklace back into the satchel. "In all honesty, Tiana. _You_ said no more stealing, _I_ on the other hand, never agreed to that."

Frowning and crossed arms were her only reply.

Tiana Jones was a close friend of Flynn and his best friend slash partner in crime, Aladdin Ababwa. Flynn and Aladdin had met in middle school and had been best friends ever since. Tiana, on the other hand, was childhood friends with Aladdin. They've known each other since they were little as a result of their mothers being close friends. So when Flynn started hanging out with Aladdin, he somehow formed a friendship with Tiana, also. But Tiana was more of a _mom_ than a friend to him, though. And it got _really_ annoying sometimes.

Flynn groaned. "I didn't steal it, alright? I just happened to…find it."

"Really?" Tiana asked, not believing a word he said. "You just happened to find it, not long after Mrs. Goodwill got one stolen from her shop? One that looked exactly like the one in your satchel?"

"Pretty sure that's what I said."

"Flynn! This is not funny!" Tiana looked frustrated. "Are you the one that stole the necklace? This is a crime, y'know, not just the small thefts you do with Aladdin by stealing cakes, or watermelons, or apples! This is an _actual_ _crime_! You could go to jail or worse–"

"Now what could be worse than going to jail?" Flynn joked.

"You could be executed."

"For stealing a necklace? I don't think so."

"So you admit, you stole the necklace?"

"I said no such thing."

"Flynn," Tiana was dead serious now. "I need the truth. Did you steal that necklace?"

"Yes." When he saw the frightened look on her face, he quickly added. "But not from Mrs. Goodwill."

She tensed up. "Then who?"

"There he is!" One of the Stabbington Brothers said, popping out from behind them.

"Them," Flynn answered Tiana and quickly grabbed her hand. Flynn pulled her through the streets as they ran from the very angry looking brothers. Now if Flynn was alone, he definitely would've lost them by now. But this time, he was with Tiana. And for someone who worked at least a hundred jobs a day, she was so out of shape. Flynn ran faster and grinned when he saw a familiar restaurant come into sight. Without looking back, he headed straight for the door where the owner was just turning a poster to signify that it was now open and ready for customers.

The owner stared at Flynn and Tiana in surprise, who were panting heavily and the hair on their heads completely disheveled. "What on earth happened to you two?"

"No time to talk, Genie," Flynn answered him. "If the Stabbington Brothers happen to stop by, we were never here." Then he quickly dragged Tiana around, looking for a place to hide.

Gary, but as he was mostly called, _Genie_ , was a man in his late twenties who had befriended Aladdin, Flynn and Tiana. He owned a local restaurant called _Genie's Lamp_. Both Aladdin and Tiana worked there. Flynn wasn't really an employee but he spent most of his free time hanging out with them and eating free food.

"Why do I have to hide?" Tiana whispered to him as they crouched down behind the counter.

"Because they saw you with me and if they find you here, that automatically means I'm here too. So _shh_ ," he hissed at her.

Surely enough, the twins appeared at the doorway of the shop not long after. "Have you seen Flynn Rider?" one of them asked in a low husky voice.

"Flynn?" the man known as Genie asked. "Flynn…Flynn. Nope, doesn't ring a bell."

The guy growled. "There isn't no one in this town who doesn't know Flynn Rider."

"Well, I'm telling you boys I've never heard of him. Now if you could just escort your way out–"

"You wanna know what I think?" the other twin asked.

"No, not really."

"I think you're hiding him here," he said as he forced his way into the restaurant.

"Now excuse me," Genie said. "I have a right to refuse any customer and right now you're barging into my shop and accusing me of hiding a person. I could call the authorities right now." Genie paused and added quietly. "And everyone in this town knows you two have a criminal record, so if you don't want to be kept behind bars, I suggest you leave this instant."

The two growled at the man and left the shop.

"They're gone," Genie informed them once the coast was clear.

"Thanks Genie," Flynn breathed out happily. He was glad that was finally over.

"So what exactly did you do to piss them off?" Genie asked.

"He stole a necklace," Tiana said angrily, glaring at Flynn.

"Who stole what now?" Aladdin asked, coming out of the storage closet with some cardboard boxes.

"Great Tiana. Why don't you say it one more time, I don't think the people in _Palace Park_ heard you," Flynn said sarcastically.

"Why would you steal their necklace?" Genie asked, completely baffled.

"Whose necklace?" Aladdin asked, trying to get into the conversation.

"It wasn't their necklace. It was a stolen necklace," Flynn informed them.

"Of course it was. _You_ stole it," Genie stated back.

"Hold up guys. Who are we talking about here?" Aladdin asked, still not understanding what was going on.

"No Genie," Tiana tried to explain once she saw that no one was understanding. "The twins are the actual thieves here."

"Oh okay…so whose necklace is it? Flynn's or yours?"

"Flynn owns a necklace?"

"No, it's not mine."

"Then it's Tiana's?"

"Tiana? Ooh, when did you get so fancy?"

"Al, I already have necklaces."

"Not one that's worthy enough to get stolen. So who bought the necklace? Was it Flynn?"

"Why would Flynn buy me a–"

"Good one Al. As if Flynn's capable of actually _buying_ something."

"OKAY ENOUGH!" Three heads turned to face Flynn.

The said teenager breathed out a sigh. "The necklace isn't mine or Tiana's. And it's not theirs, either."

"Who's the 'they' here?" Aladdin asked, still not fully understanding the situation.

Flynn ignored him. "They stole the necklace. I just stole it from them, while Tiana couldn't mind her business and got tangled up in the situation."

"Excuse me for being concerned," Tiana said as she crossed her arms. "You would do the same thing too if you thought your friend was going to jail."

"Wait a minute. Flynn's going to _jail_?"

"So who did the Stabbington brothers steal from?"

As usual, Aladdin's question was completely unheard as Flynn chose to answer Genie instead. "Mrs. Goodwill."

Tiana nodded, Genie looked surprised while Aladdin was just angry. Will somebody just tell him what's going on!

"You're returning the necklace though, right?" Genie asked.

"Yeah," Tiana added as she turned to Flynn. " _Are_ you gonna return it?"

"What am I? _Crazy_? Heck no! Tell 'em, Al."

"Oh, so _now_ I'm important?" Aladdin joked as he sat on one of the chairs.

"Fine, I'll explain."

Tiana and Genie groaned. Did they have to listen to this story all over again?

Flynn ignored them and continued. "So, the Stabbington Brothers stole a necklace from Mrs. Goodwill's shop–"

"You mean that necklace that was reported stolen yesterday?"

"Yes, now–"

"But shouldn't they, like, get arrested?"

"Yes…probably…I don't know, now please stop interru–"

"No seriously, that thing was all over the news yesterday…so, why do _you_ have it?"

Flynn groaned. "That's what I'm trying to tel–"

Knowing this could go on forever, Genie cut in. "The brothers stole the necklace from the shop, Flynn stole the necklace from the brothers."

"And now, Flynn wants to keep the necklace," Tiana added. "Please tell him it's a terrible idea."

Aladdin was still confused. "Why would Flynn want to keep a girly necklace?"

The three just stared at him, waiting for him to fully understand what was going on.

"Oh," Aladdin finally said. "He wants to _sell_ it."

"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!" Genie said with his gameshow voice, clearly mocking Aladdin.

"Hey, don't judge me," Aladdin defended himself. "Five seconds ago, I didn't even _know_ what was going on!"

"Well now you do," Tiana said with a roll of her eyes. "Now tell Flynn that he can't keep the necklace."

"Tiana said I should tell you tha–"

"Why shouldn't I keep the necklace? I stole it back from the real thieves here. This should be my reward!" he shouted angrily and turned to face Aladdin. "And you! Why do you take her side? Pfft, some friend you are."

"What? She's _scary_." Tiana rolled her eyes at what Aladdin said. "Besides, what do you want the money for, anyway?"

"Yeah Flynn. You've never thought of anything this bad," Tiana agreed. "What's making you do it?"

"What? So a guy can't just want a little extra cash?"

"Flynn," Genie finally said. "I think there's more to it than you're letting on. What's going on?"

"Nothing, alright!" Flynn yelled at them. "You want the necklace? Fine, take it!" He dropped the golden accessory on the counter and stormed into the storage closet.

Genie sighed. "Tiana and I will take this back to Mrs. Goodwill. You guys can start ahead and open up shop. We'll be back soon."

Tiana stared at the shut closet door before turning to follow Genie.

When they were gone, Aladdin knocked on the closet door. "Okay Flynn, they're gone. You can stop your sissy crying now."

Flynn opened the door and glared at his best friend. "I wasn't crying, you moron."

"Yeah sure. So what was that scene about, then?" Aladdin asked as he wiped some dust off the tables.

"Just drop it, man."

Aladdin stared at Flynn as he too joined in wiping the tables. Wait a minute. Flynn was actually _helping_. Woah, this must be serious. Aladdin decided to let it go…for now. If he knew his best friend – and he definitely did – Flynn would either just tell him casually later, or Aladdin would eventually figure it out himself.

Either way, Aladdin decided to do as Flynn said and dropped the subject. "So, did you watch the game last night?"

* * *

Tinkerbell Queen dashed around in her room grabbing clothes, shoes, hairbrushes and various other things she would definitely need in a boarding school and dumped them in her suitcases. The train to WDA was to leave at 12noon. It was exactly 8:15 in the morning and the petite blonde hadn't even finished packing.

"This is what happens when you resort to packing in the last minute."

Tinkerbell turned to her doorway and saw one of her best friends, Silvermist, leaning on the doorframe.

"Believe me, I would know," her best friend continued. "I've done that way too many times to count."

Tinkerbell smiled. "I'm not packing last minute," she said as she pulled some strands of hair away from her face. "I just waited until the time when I'm so confused that I don't even know what clothes to pack and I feel like dumping my entire closet into the suitcase."

The dark-blue haired girl smirked. "You need help, don't you?"

"Yes please." Tinkerbell grinned as her friend removed some old and slightly worn out shirts from her suitcase and replaced them with fashionable blouses that the fifteen-year old didn't even remember she had. After about ten minutes of packing, they were finally done.

"Thanks Sil," Tinkerbell said gratefully.

"No problem," Silvermist smiled in reply. "Now let's go down before Dessa comes up here to scold you for being late. _Again_."

Silvermist Liu was an Asian girl with brown eyes and the aforementioned dark-blue hair. She was a junior at WDA and was one of the best swimmers on the school's swim team. Silvermist was optimistic, fun-loving, outgoing and sometimes crazy, which were all reasons why she and Tinkerbell were such good friends. She loved the color blue and practically lived in the water which sometimes made her hair look bluer than it really was.

Iridessa Simmons, or 'Dessa' as her friends called her, was Silvermist's polar opposite in both appearance and personality. She was an African-American with her smooth chocolate-colored skin and caramel brown eyes. While she was not exactly what you would call 'uptight', she was much more worry-some about things than the rest of the girls in their group.

Tinkerbell liked to think of her as the responsible one of the group. You know, that one person in a friendship circle that always sees the logical way of things, tries to stop the rest in the group from doing insanely dangerous things they called adventures, but always ends up giving in and goes with them anyway. In the end, when things go wrong, that person will nearly make you go crazy by repeatedly saying stuff like "I told you something bad would come out of this" or "Didn't I say going into the forest at night was a terrible idea?" or "When will you guys learn that Martians are not to be trusted?"

Okay, probably not the last part but you get the gist. In the end, the remaining friends would all tell each other not to invite the responsible one on trips again, but they eventually do because they're still friends and they love each other. Plus, it's more fun if they all get in trouble together anyway.

Once Tinkerbell and Silvermist were outside the house and walking towards Tinkerbell's mom's van, they were stopped by the earlier acknowledged responsible person in the group.

" _Tink_! Do you know how _incredibly_ behind schedule we are?! You know very well that it takes about two to three hours to get to the Station from here and that's only if we're _lucky_ enough not to meet any traffic! Do you know how _irresponsible_ you're being right now?!"

"Take it easy Iridessa, _I'm_ the mother here," Tinkerbell's mom, Clarion, joked as she put a hand on the steaming girl's shoulder. She turned to face her sheepish-looking daughter, a smirk forming on her lips. "What she said."

Iridessa frowned while Tinkerbell and Silvermist giggled. " _What she said_? _That's_ the best you can do?"

The blonde woman shrugged. "Well, what did you expect me to say? You already said it all. Besides, I think the poor girl has received enough scolding for today."

"Yeah," Tinkerbell nodded as she made a fake pouty face. "The poor girl has."

Iridessa rolled her eyes.

"Okay girls," Tinkerbell's mother said. "Go to the van and get ready. We'll be leaving soon."

The three girls nodded as they walked to open the trunk of the van and put Tinkerbell's suitcases in. A girl with strawberry-blonde hair came out from the corner of the van. "Guys, what's taking so long? We should've left a long time a–" the girl gasped. "Tinkerbell! Why in Disney's name are you still in your _pajamas_?!"

The young blonde looked down at herself and saw that she was indeed still wearing her green pajama pants and a white tank-top with two stars on the front. "Oh. Well Rosetta, there's a very good explanation for this," she paused and Rosetta crossed her arms. "And when I come up with something, I'll make sure to let you know."

Rosetta Hills was basically the fashionista of the group. She always knew the latest fashion and was the person to call when one of them had absolutely nothing to wear to an occasion. She also made sure that wherever she and the girls were going, they all looked _at least_ decent. Now when she found out that Tink was still in her pajamas, there was definitely no way she was going to allow her friend to enter the Station looking like she just got out of bed.

" _Ugh_ ," Rosetta groaned then faced the Asian girl. "Sil, you were with Tink the whole time. Why didn't you tell her to change or something?"

"Oh. She's wearing pajamas?" Silvermist asked, clueless. "I hadn't noticed."

Rosetta face-palmed and Iridessa eyed the blue-haired girl. "Then...what did you think she was wearing?"

"Oh yeah," Silvermist smiled. "I just thought it was this new style she was doing. You know, like 'Fashionable clothes that look like pajamas.' Isn't…Isn't that what she was doing?" she asked.

Both Iridessa and Rosetta stared in disbelief at Silvermist with their mouths agape. Tinkerbell on the other hand was grinning. "That's an _awesome_ idea!"

"No!" both girls shouted. "No it's not!"

"What's all this noise about?" Four heads turned to face their short-but-not-as-short-as-Tink friend walking towards them. "Seriously, you distracted me from the video game I was playing. What gives?"

"Sorry Fawn," Rosetta said quickly and turned to face Tinkerbell. "You are changing in the van on our way to the Station, missy. Got it?'

"Yes ma'am!" Tinkerbell said as she saluted jokingly.

"What were you even doing last night that you couldn't have started packing then?" Fawn asked.

Fawn Bartys was known as the tom-boy of the group. She had long brown hair that she always kept in a braid and amber eyes. She was competitive, loved playing sports and a huge animal lover.

Silvermist scoffed, "Obviously she was having the stupid balloon fights she always played with Peter."

Peter Pan was Tinkerbell's childhood friend. The water balloon fight was a tradition that had taken place since Peter was nine and Tinkerbell was ten. Every year on the last day of summer vacation, they had played the game in Peter's backyard. Just the two of them.

Tinkerbell laughed, "Don't be like that, Sil. You know it's something only me and Peter do."

"But why can't you invite us at least once," Silvermist sulked. "I mean it's a _water balloon_ fight."

"Whoa speak for yourself Sil," Rosetta said. "There's no way I'll intentionally engage in an activity that leads to both my clothes _and_ hair getting wet."

"Yeah," Iridessa agreed. "And I'll rather be preparing my personal reading schedule for the new school year on the last day of summer."

Fawn ignored Rosetta and Iridessa and spoke up in favor of Silvermist. "Sil's right you know. Besides, traditions are _meant_ to be broken."

"And it was," Tinkerbell replied sadly. "Yesterday."

Rosetta furrowed her eye-brows. "What do you mean, hun?"

Tinkerbell frowned. "Well yesterday, just _right in the middle_ of our game, Tiger Lily just so happened to _conveniently_ drop by at Peter's place and acted _so_ surprised – quite horribly to be honest – to see me there. Like she had _no clue_ it was the same _bloody_ water balloon fight we had _every freaking year_ right before school starts! Then _of course_ she subtly asked whether she could join in as if she didn't have a house of her own to go to. That's how our usual duo game turned into a trio with Tiger Lily _pathetically_ trying to get close to Peter every chance she got! Not like Peter would even like her anyways, so I _honestly_ don't know why she even bothers!"

"Well," Rosetta was the first one to speak after a moment of silence. "Tiger Lily has just found a new low."

"Yeah, don't worry about it," Iridessa added. "With the way she's acting, I doubt Peter will ever return her feelings."

"Let's just get into the van," Silvermist suggested.

"Aw man," Fawn finally said, causing the rest to look at her. "I can't believe Tiger Lily joined in on the game before I did!"

"Fawn!" Rosetta scolded.

"Oh, right. Sorry Tink, Tiger Lily doesn't deserve Peter. Yada, yada…happy now?"

The rest just smiled at Fawn's behavior and rolled their eyes.

To anyone else, Tinkerbell's rant would have meant she didn't like Tiger Lily just because she wanted Peter all to herself. While she was a little possessive over Peter, it wasn't because of the seemingly obvious reasons like her having any particular feelings for him.

That was far from the truth.

In reality, Tinkerbell was just protective of Peter. Like _really_ protective. She was more like the older sister of Peter that scared the girls away that even _remotely_ looked at Peter. Except when Peter actually showed signs of wanting to be friends with them, of course.

But Tiger Lily wasn't like any other girl that fancied a guy. Nope. She took the fancying to a whole other level and was practically obsessed with him. She seemed to have this crazy idea in her head that just because Peter considered her his best friend meant that she was above everyone else he cared about. She always reminded Tinkerbell that she'd known Peter since they were in the first grade together. Which Tinkerbell often translated as "Back off, I knew him first so I'm obviously more important."

Pfft. Like that was something to gloat about.

Tiger Lily obviously thought that her protectiveness of Peter meant that she was jealous. Everybody also thought the same thing. Even her best friends had initially thought it was because she liked him that she enjoyed getting the rise out of the annoying little Indian girl. At least that was until she explained why she did it. She actually made up a list for them when she was in the seventh grade.

 **xXx**

Top Ten Reasons Why I, Tinkerbell Queen Hate Tiger Lily Hao's Guts

 _Written on March 3rd in Pixie Hollow Schools, Detention Room_

 _Commented on by Yours Truly and her best friends in the whole world…that is, until she finds better friends anyway._

10\. Tiger Lily's annoying: Obviously

 _Silvermist_ : Yay, we're doing a list! Can we do one about flying rocks next?

 _Fawn_ : You mean shooting stars?

 _Silvermist_ : Well, they _are_ rocks, aren't they?

 _Rosetta_ : Yeah, but no one ever calls them _flying rocks_

 _Silvermist_ : Like what you call them is better. Space diamonds? Really?

 _Iridessa_ : Am I the only one that noticed how lame Tink was when she referred to herself in third person?

 _Tinkerbell_ : Classic Dessa. If nobody else comments on something I did, she definitely will

 _Rosetta_ : Space diamonds is _way_ better than Flying rocks

 _Tinkerbell_ : We're still on that? Can we please focus on my list?

 _Iridessa_ : I would, but you started it off by stating the obvious. I mean, if every other number is as lame as this one, I'm not interested

 _Fawn_ : I agree with Dessa. If you keep up like this, it's gonna be boring

 _Tinkerbell_ : Haven't you guys been taught not to judge a list by its first point? _Sheesh_

9\. She loves showing off: And it's not like she's even got anything to show off

 _Rosetta_ : Well, she certainly has more chest than you do

 _Tinkerbell_ : Rosetta!

 _Silvermist_ : While Tiger Lily admittedly has bigger chest, Tink's hips are way wider. Probably the widest in the entire school, in fact

 _Rosetta_ : No wonder she's so short, she's growing sideways instead of upwards

 _Tinkerbell_ : When I mentioned showing off, that's not what I meant!

8\. She thinks she's the best dancer on the planet: Okay, she's got dancing (which is what I was actually referring to in the previous number) And sadly, she's good at it. But just 'cause she's got like only one thing in the world she's good at, doesn't mean she has to rub it in my face. I mean sure, I may not be the best dancer…ok fine, I'm a horrible dancer but you don't see me showing off in her face whenever I'm doing gymnastics…fine! I might show off just a little sometimes…alright! I admit it! I show off every chance I get. Sheesh!

I swear if you guys continue with the hitting, I'm gonna write a list of the top fifty reasons why I despise you

 _Fawn_ : _Exaggeration_!

 _Rosetta_ : My, my Tink. That's just being mean

 _Silvermist_ : Very, very mean. And just so you know, I'm sticking my tongue out at you

 _Tink_ : I know, Sil. I can _see_ you

 _Iridessa_ : Fifty? That's fine by me, Tink. But since you brought it up, if I were to write a list of the reasons I think you're not worth my time, it'd be so long that I'd have to settle for just writing my _Top Hundred_

 _Tinkerbell_ : Yeah right. You're so bluffing

 _Iridessa_ : You think so? Fine. Just to name a few…you're naggy, you're annoying, you don't usually appreciate what you have which gets on my nerves, sure you're confident but there's such a thing as _over_ -confidence Tink, you complain too much, you wait until last minute before you start on a non-science related assignment or project because you claim it's too 'boring' (Seriously Tink? Too boring? This is your education we're talking about!), You keep things you find lying on the road in your room. And fyi, they're not 'lost things', they're _thrown-away things_. And people throw those things away for a reason, you know. I mean, like that one time you found a music box beside the school dumpster?

It would have been cool if it had at least _some_ of it parts. But no. The doll was gone, and there was no music playing. Just a stinking hole, where probably the doll would've been or something. And no Tink, it wasn't just a coincidence that you found it behind a dumpster. You know why? It was _meant_ to be thrown away. And if you wanted a music box so badly, why didn't you just buy one like a _normal_ person? It's not even expensive or anything. I mean, what's wrong with just going into a store and actually buy things in whole, instead of just picking up scraps you find on the sidewalk–

 _Tinkerbell_ : Wow Iridessa, I never knew you hated my Lost Things collection so much

 _Iridessa_ : I don't, really I don't. It's just that it bugs me a little. I mean, while some of them are pretty cool, the rest are just a little…worthless. Well, that's just me anyway. I'm sure they mean a lot to you – for some reason – which is why you shouldn't stop it. Sure, I may never understand why you do it, it's still one of the things that make you different

 _Tinkerbell_ : So you're saying you're crossing my love for lost things off your list?

 _Iridessa_ : No. As I said before, it bugs me, so it's still very high up on my list. Also, because of your very rude interruption, I didn't get to finish. So as I was saying…you're always late whenever we need to go somewhere especially when it's important, you always make fun the priority of everything except on those rare occasions where you're trusted with something important and suddenly it's like the rest of us aren't allowed to have fun anymore, until you can of course, and the most important part…you always get us into trouble. Like why we're in detention right now? Your fault

 _Tinkerbell_ : Okay, I'm just gonna pretend I wasn't hurt by your previous comments and say this: I honestly had no idea we would get punished for sneaking frogs into the school

 _Rosetta_ : Yeah…why did we do that?

 _Tinkerbell_ : Because I've spent a semester and a half in Biology class and so far, there is no mention of frog dissection. Which to be honest, is the only thing I look forward to in that class

 _Fawn_ : And because Dessa and Sil haven't done it either, _naturally_ Tink thought it's because the school finds it hard to get frogs for classes

 _Tinkerbell_ : Which I found very weird. I mean, Pixie Hollow might be classy and all but this place is practically _crawling_ with them

 _Rosetta_ : Well, I guess it will be good news to tell you that I spoke to my Biology teacher a few days ago, and apparently, frog anatomy is a high school topic. We freshmen start doing the basics and introductions next week

 _Tinkerbell_ : So I have to wait until the ninth-grade? What a bummer

 _Silvermist_ : I'm lost. What's frog dissection? It's not like harming the frog, is it?

 _Fawn_ : You mean you don't even know what it means? Then why did you agree to help us in the first place?

 _Silvermist_ : You guys told me we were sneaking frogs into the school. I don't really need a reason to agree to that. It was super fun!

 _Iridessa_ : Wait a minute. Rosie, if you spoke to your teacher a few days ago, why did you still help us with the frogs? If you had said something earlier we wouldn't even be here

 _Rosetta_ : First of all, I didn't want to help. You guys practically forced me to. Secondly, I only did it because I thought you guys needed the frogs for your skin

 _Silvermist_ : Cool! Wait, why?

 _Rosetta_ : Well, we got the frogs from that pond Sil likes to swim in, right?

 _Fawn_ : Yeah, so?

 _Rosetta_ : We all agree that Sil's got the best skin. While I initially thought it was Asian genetics, just like you guys, I read online that most of the best skin products like soap and body cream contain the slime of frog. And Sil tends to swim in places where frogs are, I just thought–

 _Fawn_ : Ew! You actually thought we wanted to put the slimes on our bodies? _Gross_!

 _Iridessa_ : If we wanted our skin to look 'flawless', don't you think we would have just, bought the product with the already processed slime and what-not?

 _Rosetta_ : Well since it was Tink's idea with the whole frog thing in the first place, I actually thought she was trying to get you guys to make some kind of special skin cream or something

 _Tinkerbell_ : Do you honestly think I'd go as far as collecting the slime of frogs to make a beauty cream? Come on, I'm not _that_ bad

 _Rosetta_ : Yes, you are hun

 _Fawn_ : Absolutely

 _Silvermist_ : In fact, you've actually done crazier things than this

 _Iridessa_ : Sil's right. If this was actually an idea of yours, it'd be one of your more sensible ones this year. And it's March, so that's saying something

 _Tinkerbell_ : … _Moving on_

7\. Who the heck puts feathers in their hair? …'Nuff said

 _Fawn_ : Well, she's Indian, so it might be an Indian thing

 _Rosetta_ : Not really. There was this one Indian girl that was in Peter's grade a few years back. I never, not once, saw her with feathers in her hair

 _Tinkerbell_ : Indian girl? I didn't know there was another Indian in Peter's grade

 _Rosetta_ : She moved. Like I said, a few years back. You should know her though. Cute, always had her hair braided to the back and she usually wore these really pretty gold hoop earrings

 _Fawn_ : Oh, I remember her. Pretty sure her name was Shanti. She also had this red dot on her forehead that for some reason, Tiger Lily seems to lack

 _Silvermist_ : Yeah, why doesn't Tiger Lily have that?

 _Iridessa_ : The real question should be, why did Shanti have it? I read online that the red dot was usually given to Indian women, and considering she was a fourth-grader at the time, I'm pretty sure she was anything but a woman

 _Silvermist_ : Is that what the red dot meant? I always thought it was some kind of micro-chip used to communicate with aliens

 _Iridessa_ : Why _on earth_ would you think that?

 _Silvermist_ : Dunno. Seemed logical to me

 _Tinkerbell_ : Umm…next point

6\. She thinks she can just be rude to me even though I am clearly a year _and_ a grade older than her: And before any of you say anything (I'm talking about you Dessa) I know I'm not the politest person, myself. But Tiger Lily is just so _extreme_. And okay fine, she may have bigger chest than mine (not that I care or anything) and she may or may not be taller than I am – Hey! I already warned you guys about the hitting! – in fact, so what if she's taller than me? I'm still gonna grow taller in the future

I mean, I have to, since my mom is like 5"9 or something. Unless of course, I got my genes from my dad, but that's only possible if he's short…and now that I think about it, he just might be. I mean, it just might be one of the reasons my mom divorced him in the first place. This is not good. I'm going to be teased for being short for the rest of my life!

In all fairness, it's my dad fault, not mine

 _Iridessa_ : Yeah sure. Blame your lack of growth on your father. Kids these days

 _Tinkerbell_ : Well it is, isn't it? If I got anything from that stupid video we watched in Health Class last month, I'm pretty sure most of the, you know, stuff we get is from our parents

 _Silvermist_ : _Stuff_?!

 _Tinkerbell_ : Don't you dare laugh at me! When you watched the video last year, you had nightmares about it for a week!

 _Silvermist_ : At least _I_ didn't avoid boys for almost a month

 _Fawn_ : Hey! I've been avoiding boys _way_ before I watched that video!

 _Silvermist_ : Yeah, except Bambi and Thumper. And please do tell, have you even as much as looked them in the eye since you watched that video?

 _Fawn_ : …It had nothing to do with it

 _Tinkerbell_ : So out of all five of us, only Rosie and Dessa were fine after watching the video

 _Silvermist_ : Well that's because Dessa's known about it since Elementary School so she was un-fazed by it, and Rosie's well…Rosie. She probably figured half of it on her own

 _Fawn_ : Plus…there was that teeny tiny fact that she'd already had her first kiss at the time

 _Iridessa_ : Having your first kiss before the seventh-grade? Tsk, tsk, what a shame

 _Tinkerbell_ : What's a shame is that you actually spelt 'tsk'

 _Silvermist_ : Yeah Dessa. Spelling sounds is just too weird

 _Iridessa_ : Am I hallucinating, or did Sil just call me weird?

 _Fawn_ : It's all real…unless I too am hallucinating

 _Iridessa_ : _Sil_? Who would probably win the weirdest person on the planet award in a _landslide_ , called _me_ weird?

 _Silvermist_ : I'm the weirdest person on the planet? Awesome! So…when's the award ceremony?

 _Iridessa_ : …My point exactly

 _Rosetta_ : Okay back up a bit. Dessa, about the kissing thing? _Excuse you_. I'm actually proud of myself, thank you very much. And it's not like I was even _looking_ for someone to kiss

 _Iridessa_ : Of course you weren't, Rosie. Because you were nine! Do you even know what his name was?

 _Rosetta_ : Oh, relax. It only lasted for a second and you know it. Plus, it was Christmas and we were both under the mistletoe. No biggie. And to answer your question, no I didn't get the chance to learn his name because right after the kiss, he wiped his lips and ran off. Which, if you ask me, was really rude of him

 _Tinkerbell_ : …Okay…while I would love to say that this delightful topic about kissing and the birds & the bees has to do with the next number on this list… _thankfully_ , it doesn't. Not even close

5\. Just because she and Peter are in the same grade and I'm a grade above them, she thinks that _automatically_ means that she's closer to Peter than I am: Um, excuse me? So just because Lilo's in the same grade as Peter, does that mean she's also closer to him than I am? I swear, sometimes Tiger lily's just stupid

 _Iridessa_ : And you aren't?

 _Tinkerbell_ : You just _had_ to write that, didn't you?

 _Iridessa_ : You had it coming

 _Tinkerbell_ : …Whatever

4\. Yeah I get it, she's pretty. But Rosetta's a _million times_ prettier than her so she should just get over herself

 _Rosetta_ : Well now, while I'm flattered and all, that's not fair to the poor girl. You should at least pair her up with someone on her level. Like that girl that Peter's been hanging out with lately. You know, the short girl (but yet, still taller than you are, Tink) with black hair with lots of tiny colored hair-clips. She always walks around wearing this cute little mint-green hoodie. I forget her name, Vivica or something. Anyways that girl can be compared with Tiger Lily. And while I'm comparing…yeah, what's-her-name is prettier than TL

 _Tinkerbell_ : Peter's been hanging out with her? Since when? Also, her name's Vanellope…at least I think it is. And why would Peter be hanging out with her? And why am I just hearing about it?!

 _Fawn_ : The reason you didn't know about it is probably because you were working on that Science Project with Terrence, Clank and Bobble for the fair. Peter and Vanellope only hung out at the arcade because that cool and huge guy, Ralph, works there. Remember him? Most little kids were scared of him. I don't blame them though, he was nearly seven feet tall! How totally awesome is that! I guess Vanellope and Ralph knew each other well, and Ralph was like, Peter's role model at the time. So it made sense for them to be hanging out

 _Tinkerbell_ : Oh…and of course I remember Ralph, it's kinda hard not to. I mean, it's not every day you see someone that tall. And about Vanellope, I've talked to her a few times and she seems nice. Why don't we befriend her?

 _Silvermist_ : Actually, we already did. Apparently she and Lilo are also friends. Fun girls

 _Tinkerbell_ : What?! Why didn't nobody tell me this sooner?!

 _Iridessa_ : You were busy with your Science Project…didn't someone already tell you that?

 _Tinkerbell_ : …I hate you guys

3\. She thinks she's worth something just 'cause her dad's the chief of the _Red Hao Industry_ : She _is_ aware she's not the only one with a famous parent, right? My mom founded the _Faeries_ magazines, Sil's parents are founders of _Hui's Water Parks_ , Fawns parents are retired athletes, Rosetta's dad owns a vineyard and sells most of the best wine across Fantasia while Iridessa's are world travelers whom I admit, I have no idea what their job is, but there's definitely nobody in most of Fantasia that doesn't know who the Simmons are

 _Iridessa_ : I can't believe you guys still don't know what my parents do for a living

 _Fawn_ : Well, do you?

 _Iridessa_ : Not _exactly_ –

 _Silvermist_ : See? You're not so different now, are ya?

 _Iridessa_ : At least I know they're business people, which explains why they travel a lot

 _Rosetta_ : Can we put a pin in this conversation? I actually kinda want to see what Tink put for her top two

 _Tinkerbell_ : Why, thank you Rosie. Ahem. As I was saying…

2\. Her pig-tails look stupid

 _Rosetta_ : _Really_? Disappointed me _once again_ , Tink…

 _Tinkerbell_ : What? They do, don't they?

 _Fawn_ : Yeah, but it's not really worthy of being the second number on this list

 _Tinkerbell_ : Well, it is to me. I mean, am I the only one who feels like pulling it off her head?

 _Silvermist_ : No, actually. You're not

 _Iridessa_ : _Sil_. Could for once not take Tink's side?

 _Silvermist_ : What? They _do_ look stupid. And Tink, I did pull her pig-tail once. For some reason, she wasn't too happy with it

 _Tinkerbell_ : You did? Aw man, you shoulda called me. Serves her right for being all 'look at me, I look cute in a pig-tail. Nyeh, nyeh'

 _Iridessa_ : _Nyeh_? Look who's spelling sounds now

 _Rosetta_ : Okay, I'm getting tired of this. Are we gonna see the number one or not?

 _Fawn_ : You're actually interested in this?

 _Rosetta_ : Not really. I'm just curious to see what she put for the first point

 _Iridessa_ : You read what Rosie wrote, Tink. Are you gonna write it now, or you're waiting till we _all_ start frog anatomy in class?

 _Silvermist_ : I bet the last point is that Tiger Lily's secretly a mermaid

 _Fawn_ : Tink, write already, will ya? I'm actually not interested in the ridiculous speculations Sil's likely to come up with

 _Tinkerbell_ : Okay, okay. The moment you guys have been waiting for, is finally here. The number one, top, upmost, most important, the _final_ reason–

 _Iridessa_ : Quit stalling and get on with it, you retard

 _Tinkerbell_ : Fine, fine. No need for name calling. Okay. The number one reason why I think Tiger Lily is absolutely horrible–

 **xXx**

The girls did not end up finding out what it was. Because at that exact moment, the bell for the end of Detention rang, and all five of the girls got off their seats and immediately scurried out of the room.

None of them seemed to remember the white sheet of paper that had been torn out of Tinkerbell's History notebook – she absolutely loathed that subject – which was discarded on the floor. The number one reason, forever remaining a complete mystery.

No, not really. When asked later that day what the number one point was, Tinkerbell answered simply:

"Oh that. Well, I could only think of nine reasons, and writing 'top nine reasons' sounded stupid. So I just wrote ten reasons. There wasn't going to be a number one point from the beginning."

 _Go figure_.

* * *

Nala Calame stared out the window of the limousine her best friend's butler, Zazu, was driving. She watched the buildings go by as they passed them on their way to the Animation Central Train Station. She fiddled with the hem of her shirt as they got closer to the station, staring blankly at the reflection of herself in the window, eyes filled with fear and anxiety. She felt a palm brush her skin and jumped a little in her seat at the slight contact.

"A little jumpy now, are we?" Simba, the best friend, teased.

"What? I don't get nervous," Nala replied unconvincingly.

"Sure," Simba joked. "Why don't you tell that to your shirt?"

Nala looked down to see what he meant, and surely enough, her brand new lilac blouse had tangled threads at the hem.

"There's no point in lying 'cause I know you too well," her annoying best friend said with a smirk.

Simba Pride. Her best friend since God-knows-when. Strawberry-blonde hair, chocolate brown eyes, and quite irritating when right…which was rare to be honest.

Nala Calame. The girl. Obviously the one who gets them out of trouble. The responsible one. Wheat-blonde hair, teal eyes, and a know-it-all…according to Simba anyway.

Their long-time friendship was going to end though, if Simba didn't stop being so annoying with the whole teasing thing. Normally she wouldn't mind. Heck, she'd come up with a comeback to throw at him, but considering what a nervous wreck she was, she didn't really have the strength to do so.

Originally planning to tell Simba to back off and leave her alone, Nala faced him. When she saw that his smirk was gone and replaced with a concerned look, she sighed. "I'm a bit nervous, I guess."

He gave her a small smile, "It's okay. I'm a little bit nervous too."

Nala stared at him with wide eyes. "Wow, the almighty Simba nervous? I never thought this day would come," she said teasingly, her turn to smirk.

Simba rolled his eyes. "Shaddup," he said as he elbowed her jokingly.

The two stopped talking and sat in a comfortable silence. The next five minutes were peaceful, until Nala continued with her fiddling.

"You'd better stop that if you want to reach the station fully dressed," Simba joked.

"Sorry," Nala said sheepishly. "You know it's a bad habit I just can't get rid of."

Simba thought for a moment. "Instead of playing with your badly sewn top, why don't you put your hands in good use and play a little Dark Ninjas with me instead?"

Nala looked up at him with a raised eye-brow, " _That's_ putting my hands in good use?" She paused before she added, "And my blouse is not badly sewn. For crying out loud, it's silk!"

Simba clicked his tongue. "While I would _love_ to say that information was relevant, it really _wasn't_."

Whether it was silk, cotton, or wool, he didn't really know the difference. Sure, he knew they felt different on his skin, but when people said cotton was better, or how wool was considered the worst clothing texture, he couldn't care less. Honestly, clothes were for two things and two things only;

. To cover his nakedness

. To keep him warm

Every other reason was meaningless as far as he was concerned.

"Besides," Simba continued. "Playing video games _is_ a good use!"

Nala just rolled her eyes playfully. "Whatever, but why Dark Ninjas of all games? You know very well that I beat you every time we play it."

"You can praise yourself all you want, but the last time I played the game, I almost beat your highscore," Simba answered with a grin.

However, Nala was not impressed. "Yeah sure, but you're missing something; the word _almost_. Which means you _didn't_ beat the high score, and you're probably not gonna do that anytime soon."

Simba raised an eye-brow, "Is that a challenge Ms. Calame?" He asked playfully with a ridiculous British accent.

"Only if you can handle it, my good sir." Nala answered, also with a terrible British accent.

Simba picked up two controllers, turned on the backseat TV and inserted the DVD before exclaiming, "Let the games begin!"

* * *

Max Goof sighed as he loaded the trunk of his dad's mini-van with suitcases. He couldn't believe he was already a sophomore at Walt Disney Academy. The same school his 'uncle' Mickey was Principal of. Mr. Mouse wasn't really his uncle though, that was just what Max had called him since he was little. He realized last year though, that within the school premises, his uncle was to be referred to as Principal Mickey instead.

Boy was that difficult. He got used to it of course. He had to. But over the summer, he went back from Principal to Uncle. He hadn't thought of the fact that he would have to get used to calling him by his official status again by the time he resumed school.

Max snorted. Why was he even worrying about that? Like that was a problem. The real problem here was that he was falling for his so-called uncle's niece, Roxanne. Hard.

Why is that a problem, you ask? Because if Mickey wasn't his real uncle there was no problem whatsoever to date his niece, right?

Wrong.

The problem here was not because Roxanne was Mr. Mouse's niece. In fact, Max was sure that if Mickey had somehow found out about his feelings for Roxanne, he wouldn't mind. The problem was not even the fact that Roxanne's father was huge and probably hated his guts…okay, maybe that was a bit of a problem. But not entirely.

The real problem here had to be that Roxanne didn't even know he existed!

Okay sure, she knew his name was Max, and that he was the son of Goofy Goof (which was a pretty goofy name if you asked him). Plus, there was also that one detail that his twin sister, Stacey, was her _best_ _friend_. So apparently, she also knows him as her best friend's goofy brother. Excuse the pun.

"Dude, are you even listening to me?"

Max turned to face one of his best friends, Bobby Zimmeruski. Bobby was a tall and lean guy who had a weird thing for cheese. His orange hair was in its usual Mohawk style and he had on his google-like sunglasses which he was hardly ever seen without.

Max raised an eye-brow, "It had something to do with cheese?"

Bobby rolled his eyes, "…Yes."

Max laughed as he walked to the porch to get more suitcases while Bobby followed him. "Okay fine, you got the cheese part," Bobby continued. "But do you even know what type of cheese it was?"

Max heaved up a purple suitcase as he turned to his friend. "The canned ones?"

Bobby dead-panned, "Still doesn't mean you were listening."

"Dude, I don't even need to listen to you to know what you're talking about," Max said as he laid the suitcase into the trunk. "You talk about the same kind of things all the time. I mean, if you're not talking about cheese, you're talking about–"

"Parties."

Both Max and Bobby turned to face the last member of their trio, PJ Pete. PJ was chubby and shorter than the other two. He was your typical shy and stammering boy which everyone found weird considering his dad was about as brutal as an MMA fighter.

"You know, it hurts that this is all you guys think of me," Bobby put his hand on his chest. "You missed the fact that I also talk about video-games."

Max and PJ laughed.

"But seriously Max," Bobby said as he helped PJ with a suitcase. "Just because I talk about the same kinds of things most of the time doesn't mean you can just zone out on me."

"Zone out?" PJ asked. "Was it Roxanne?"

Bobby and PJ both smirked.

Max rolled his eyes in annoyance. "For your information, I was _not_ thinking about Roxanne."

"Oh yeah?" Bobby crossed his arms. "Then what was so important that you didn't listen to my story about the time I made a small replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa using canned cheese?"

Max's eyes widened. "You actually made a leaning tower out of cheese?"

"Well…not exactly," PJ told him. "He initially wanted to make it a regular tower, but it wasn't stable and kept leaning like it was gonna fall."

"Still, that's awesome," Max said and grinned at Bobby. "Lemme guess. You named it the Leaning Tower of Cheese-a, didn't you?"

Bobby laughed as he elbowed PJ. "See? He gets it!"

"Did you manage to get a photo of it?" Max asked.

"Naw man, didn't get the chance to," Bobby answered. "Just when I was about to bring out my camera from my pocket, it collapsed. Seriously dude, you shoulda seen it. My creation just went _splat_."

Max chuckled, "Too bad. That would've been really cool."

" _It_ _was_!" Bobby beamed.

"So," PJ said as they walked back to the porch. "What about Roxanne were you thinking of?"

"I already told you I wasn't thinking of her."

"C'mon dude, quit playin'. We already know it was her." Bobby said with an eye-roll. "So…was it her hair?"

"Her smile?"

"Her eyes? It's her eyes, isn't it?"

"Her nose?"

Bobby looked at PJ with furrowed eye-brows. "Why the heck would Max be thinking 'bout her _nose_?"

"I don't know. Why don't you ask him?" PJ said, gesturing towards the raven-haired teen. "All I know is that one time when you guys crashed at my place, I heard him mutter something about Roxanne's nose."

Bobby cackled, "You dream of her nose?!"

Max's face turned red, "No I do not!"

Bobby couldn't stop laughing. "Most dudes just dream about making out with girls or doing something that would be rated R but _no_ , you go ahead and dream of a girl's _nose_!"

PJ snickered. He hadn't meant to embarrass his friend but it was funny.

Max smacked both his friends in the head. "Can we please talk about something else?"

Right at that moment, his twin sister Stacey, came out of the house holding her cellphone. "What's all the noise about? I can barely hear what Roxy's saying."

As mentioned earlier, Stacey Cow-belle was Max's sister. Both she and Max were the children of Goofy Goof and Clara Cow-belle. But since their parents divorced, Max lived with their dad while Stacey stayed with their mom. Stacey took their mother's dirty blonde hair and wore thick-framed glasses that covered her brown eyes.

Stacey was your typical goody-two shoes. She was the student body president back in middle school and was the perfect one in the Goofy-Cow-belle family which understandably labelled Max the unserious one. While she could probably do no wrong in the eyes of the adults, Stacey was absolutely bossy and a control freak. But in the end, she was still an amazing sister. _Sometimes_.

"Oh, you're talking to Roxy?" Bobby asked. "Why don't you give the phone to Max? I'm sure he has _plenty_ to say 'bout her nose."

After Bobby said that, he and PJ continued laughing while Max groaned. Stacey, on the other hand, was totally lost. "Nose? What?"

Max sighed, "Don't listen to them."

Stacey put her phone up to her ear. "Hey Roxy, sorry about that. Turns out the boys were laughing at some stupid joke they made about noses or something…oh, they're fine…well at the moment he's slightly embarrassed, but when is he not?"

Max raised an eye-brow at that comment. Were they talking about him? Bobby and PJ had stopped laughing and listened to Stacey's conversation with Roxanne.

"Oh, they're good," Stacey continued. "Looks like they're done loading the van…what do you mean? Of course I helped!"

All three boys rolled their eyes. Yeah right.

"Okay, maybe I didn't help much but I helped…I put my purse in the front seat…yeah, yeah whatever…okay I'll tell them," Stacey put her hand over her phone as she casually removed the object from her ear. "Roxy says hi." Though she didn't give them a chance to reply as she continued talking to her phone. "They say hey back…hold your horses, we'll be there soon…well if you wanna talk to him so badly why don't I just give him the phone?"

The three boys glanced at each other. Give who the phone?

"Oh don't worry about it, I'm sure he's dying to talk to you…yeah, you don't know him as well as I do…it's no big deal, he's here anyways…don't you dare hang up missy…Roxy…no, Roxy…Roxanne Martins, if it were possible I'd slap you through this phone…oh, stop worrying it'll be fine…I'm giving him the phone now," Stacey stopped talking and held the phone to Max. "Roxy wants to talk to you."

Max stared at the phone in his sister's hand in disbelief. Him? Roxanne wanted to talk to _him_? How was that even possible? Wait, of course it wasn't possible. Stacey's probably just trying to get back at him for the time in sixth-grade when he switched their lunches and she ended up getting peanut butter stuck to her braces, therefore making her unable to give her big speech that day. She probably hadn't found the perfect revenge. Until now.

"Will you just take the phone?" Stacey said in an irritated tone. "It's not like it's gonna explode."

Max peered at the slightly old iPhone. "Well, how am I so sure that it won't?"

"Just take the damn phone, you idiot!" Stacey snapped.

Max quickly grabbed the phone from her hands out of fear. He glanced at his best-friends who just gawked at him with mouths wide open. He glanced at his sister who now had her arms crossed as she glared at him. Max gulped as he put the phone up to his ear. "H-hello?"

" _Max_?" he heard Roxanne say.

"Uh, yeah. H-hey Roxanne," Max rubbed the back of his neck. Boy, was he nervous.

" _Hi! Um, I mean…how are ya_?"

"I'm…I'm good. You?"

" _Great_."

"Good." This was getting awkward. Too awkward. Say something you idiot!

" _So…"_ Roxanne continued. " _I…didn't get to see you all summer – I mean you guys! – I didn't…get to see you guys during the summer_."

"Yeah, Bobby went to visit his grandparents in Ohio and PJ and his dad went on some kind of tour," Max answered. But before Roxanne could ask him anything about his holiday adventures, Max asked her a question of his own. "So how 'bout you? How did you spend your summer?"

" _My summer was pretty boring, really_ ," Roxanne sighed. " _My dad was hardly at home during the week because of work so I spent most of my weekends with him. I went to the beach practically every day and got a tan. Um…I got a summer job babysitting some of my neighbors' kids. And when Stacey came to visit, I spent practically every minute with her and even helped out in you guy's mom's bakery_."

"Wow, seems to me like you spent your summer like a normal teenager," Max joked.

" _I guess_ ," Roxanne laughed. _"_ _But I didn't do anything exciting. Um…why didn't you, you know, come along with Stacey when she visited_?"

That was the question Max had been avoiding. Not that he didn't want to visit Roxanne, that would have been the highlight of his entire summer. "The thing is," Max started. "I was kinda busy with my dad."

" _Yeah, I heard. But um…I just wanted to know what was – y'know – so important that you couldn't come for a while_." She sounded…disappointed.

Nothing! Max wanted to scream. Nothing was even close compared to how important Roxanne was to him.

When Max didn't reply, Roxanne continued. " _I mean, it's not like you were going to stay for the whole summer. You didn't even have to stay for a month like Stacey did. Maybe a week, or even a day if you were so busy…which you probably were. Okay, I'm gonna shut up now. It's not like it's my place to tell you when and when you cannot hang out with your dad. I'm sorry if I said anything offensive and–_ "

"Roxanne," Max finally said to stop her rambling. To be honest, he didn't even hear most of it because she was talking so fast. "Um…the…the r-reason I couldn't visit was because I went on a…a road trip…with my dad." Max sighed. _There_ , he said it.

" _Really_?" Roxanne practically squealed. " _That's_ so _cute_!"

"Um…cute?"

" _Yeah. I think it's so adorable that you still go on road trips with your dad_."

Cute? Adorable? She might as well pull his heart out. Why had he blurted out the truth like a big dummy, anyway? He should've just lied and told her he was the backup dancer to Powerline or something.

Already embarrassed to the core, Max said plainly, "I think Stacey wants to talk to you." He turned to his friends to find Bobby and Stacey talking while PJ was playing a game on his tablet. "Um, Stacey," Max said awkwardly as he handed his sister back her phone.

"What? Already? But you guys barely talked!" Stacey exclaimed. Max just shrugged as he sat down on the porch beside PJ. Stacey stood up and walked into the house, her phone already in her ear. "Roxy, what happened?"

"Sooo…how'd it go?" Bobby asked, wiggling his eye-brows.

Max frowned, "She called me cute."

"Ouch," Bobby grimaced.

PJ looked up from his tablet and frowned at his two friends. "How's that a bad thing? I thought you'd be happy that she thinks you're cute."

"PJ my man," Bobby said as he put his hand on the shorter boy's shoulder. "It's only cool for a girl to call you cute if she's saying it to her friends. But saying it to you directly is just sad, it's even enough to destroy a dude's self-esteem." Bobby grinned at Max as he continued. "And our friend Maxie over here, didn't have much to begin with."

"Well," PJ started, understanding the concept. "It's not so bad if she didn't call you adorable, right?" He finished, trying to make Max feel a little better.

The young teen just stood up, "I'm gonna go get a drink." Then he left.

"Did she call him adorable too?" PJ asked.

"What do you think?" Bobby sighed. "We need to find him a girlfriend. And fast."

"What's wrong with just trying to set him and Roxanne up together?" PJ asked, not taking his eyes off the zombie game he had resumed.

"Dude c'mon. Max has been crushing on her since, what? Fourth grade? And if the whole cute 'n adorable talk meant somethin', I'd say it means Roxanne only thinks of him as her best friend's dorky brother – which he is."

"Okay so let's say we're going with this dumb idea of yours and try to set him up with another girl. Which girl are we even gonna set him up with?"

"I dunno," Bobby shrugged. "But it has to be someone who'd not mind spending time with him, so somewhere along the lines of dorky and geeky. Then she'd have to like dudes like Powerline 'cause he rocks. Plus, she shouldn't be a cheese-hater. Stuff like Motocross and Extreme Stunts have to be her main priority. Oh! And she has to be interested in skateboards. That's a must."

PJ frowned. "I don't think a girl like that exists at WDA. Y'know, the school we go to where ninety-percent of the girls wouldn't be caught dead in a sports arena, and walk around with Designer handbags."

"Is there not anyone that has at least _one_ of the qualities I mentioned?"

"None that I know of."

"What about that girl, Mulan? She seems pretty badass for a chick."

PJ stared at Bobby in amusement. "You wanna set Max up with _Mulan_?"

"Yeah, it's a dumb idea, isn't it?" Bobby sighed as he ran a hand through his Mohawk. "She looks like she's hung up on Jim, anyway."

"Really?" PJ asked as the words _Game Over_ filled the screen on his tablet. "I didn't know she was into him."

"She's probably not," Bobby replied. "But if she likes spending so much time with Jim, I highly doubt she'd want to spend any time with someone like Max."

"Why not?" PJ asked as he started the game again. "They're both into skateboards. All Max needs to do is style his hair in a rattail."

"Yeah that and be cool, gain at least a shred of confidence, be good-looking, have lots of girls swooning over him, be good at some sports other than skateboarding, be good at _any_ sport at all, not have two left feet, have shoelaces that are never untied, not turn red the minute a pretty girl glances at him _especially_ when it's obvious he's not even the one they're looking at–"

"Bobby," PJ interrupted. "I think you've made your point."

"Oh, well then. I guess Mulan's out."

"It appears so."

"What about Ariel?"

"What _about_ Ariel?"

"Well, from the nearly six-year crush Max has had on Roxanne, I think it's safe to say that he's interested in redheads."

PJ rolled his eyes. "Roxanne is his first and only crush so far. Just because she happens to have red hair doesn't mean he's into redheads."

"Well…don't you think it's weird that his first crush is a redhead? I mean, that's saying something, right?"

"No," PJ said simply. "If Roxanne was a blonde or brunette, his first crush would have been a blonde or brunette. Roxanne just happened to be a redhead. Simple as that."

"Nah, the red hair had something to do with it."

PJ groaned – partly due to Bobby's stupid red hair theory and the fact that he lost that round of his game. _Again_. He just couldn't get past level twelve! "Fine whatever, but we still have to cross Ariel out."

"Why?"

"Because she also has that huge crush on Jim. Like that's something new."

"Why do all the girls flock around Jim?" Bobby asked in an irritated tone. "We both have unique hairstyles, so why does _he_ get all the attention! Maybe it's because they feel my hairstyle's a little outdated. Maybe I should grow my hair out like him."

PJ looked up from his tablet and faced his friend. He squinted his eyes, as if he were imagining something then shook his head. "Nah, even with switched hairstyles, he'd still get the girls." Looking at Bobby's dejected look, PJ smiled as he added. "Don't worry. Stacey will always prefer you to other guys."

At that moment, Bobby's face went red – which was a rare sight to see – as he whipped his head around so fast that PJ was certain he heard a crack. "What do you mean by that?"

* * *

"Why are we doing this, again?" a dark-skinned teenager asked her mother for the fourth time that morning.

The tired looking woman groaned as she heaved up a heavy suitcase into the trunk of a taxi. "Like I said for the last _million_ times Esmeralda, Mrs. Knight has given me the opportunity to now be her live-in maid. And for that to happen, of course that means I need to actually _live_ with her to give her twenty-four seven assistance."

Esmeralda rolled her eyes, "I know _that_. What I mean is why did she make you a live-in maid, anyway? It's not like she's sick or something."

"That I cannot answer to," Esmeralda's mom answered. "Besides, I couldn't say no to the offer. Not only does it pay well but it also puts a roof over our heads."

"Well," Esmeralda tried to protest as her dog, Djali, nibbled on her shoe. "What's wrong with the roof we already have?"

Esmeralda's mother put her hands on her waist. "What roof? You mean the dingy old apartment that we struggled our butts off to pay for? I'm being offered a very good job Esmeralda, and to top it all off we don't have to pay for rent," she sighed. "Why don't you look past your dislike for this boy and focus on the bright side of things?"

Esmeralda sighed and pulled Djali up from the ground. "It's not that I don't like him, mama – don't get me wrong though, I seriously don't – it's just that the guy is a huge jerk and has this ego that I can't stand. I mean, it's bad enough that I have to deal with him at school but to _live_ with him? That's just…just–"

"Just get your butt in the car," her mother cut her off.

Sighing, the teenager gave up her protest and entered the cab. The drive to the Knights' Mansion was quiet. As the car left Disney Village, the town Esmeralda had lived with her mother her whole life, Esmeralda stifled a groan. They were headed to the outskirts of Disney Village: Palace Park. Or as Esmeralda preferred to call it, _Snooty Street_.

Palace Park was basically the rich people side of Disney Village. When some families from far away showed up in her little town with the intention of sending their kids to WDA, most of them just bought houses at Palace Park and resided there. Most people of Disney Village had never stepped foot in Palace Park. Esmeralda herself had never been there either, she didn't have a reason to.

As they passed different houses – no, _mansions_ – Esmeralda couldn't help but gaze in awe at the buildings, each one seeming bigger than the last. Some had the same classy modern style, while some others looked like they just copied the architecture of some Medieval Castle. There were even some that had a specific theme to it. Like one of the houses there was basic Ancient Chinese architecture. Esmeralda wondered if the inside looked as historical as the outside did.

Finally, the car came to a stop. Esmeralda looked at the house they stopped in front of and gasped.

 _It was magnificent_.

It looked like a mixture of a modern mansion and a Medieval Castle. The light cream walls of the building standing tall above the dark iron gates. Esmeralda tried to imagine what was behind the gates. She could bet that there was a lawn full of freshly mowed green grass. There were probably horses for pets, instead of the usual dogs or cats. Esmeralda imagined it would be a pure white stallion with golden mane. There was probably going to be a huge brick fountain in the center and about ten butlers ready to greet them as they walked down the stone path.

"Esmeralda." She blinked twice at the sound of her name and faced her mother who was struggling with a particularly heavy suitcase. "A little help would be nice."

"Oh, sorry mama," Esmeralda said as she quickly went to help her mother. As they brought the suitcases out of the taxi, the driver helped them carry them to the gate. Once they were done, they paid the taxi driver and rang the doorbell of the house.

"So you think they'll hear the doorbell all the way from here?" Esmeralda asked as she held Djali in her arms.

"Well, the doorbell is inside the house," her mom said in a tired tone.

Esmeralda snorted, "You call this a house? I've seen hotels that aren't nearly as big as this."

The woman did not have a chance to reply because at that exact moment, the big iron gates opened to reveal a tall middle-aged man.

"The Andersons?" the man asked in a formal tone Esmeralda had only ever heard in the movies.

"Uh, yes."

"Good morning," the man continued. "My name is Reginald, the butler, and I will be taking you to the Madame."

 _Reginald_? Esmeralda thought. _Of course it's Reginald_. For some reason, butlers never seemed to have normal names.

After–ahem– _Reginald_ said that, he clapped his hands twice. Out of nowhere, ladies dressed in cute black and white maid uniforms came and took their suitcases to the mansion. When they were done, _Reginald_ _the butler_ – huh, Esmeralda was starting to like the sound of that – escorted them to the building. It was then that Esmeralda finally noticed her surroundings.

It was way better than she imagined. Yes, there was the perfectly cut grass. And there was the stone-walk path that lead all the way to the mansion. And there was also a beautiful fountain right in the middle of it all. Added to that, there was a topiary of well-trimmed horses.

The building itself was a light cream with a touch of dark brown. The morning sun hit the roof of the building which reflected the rays to the flowing water of the fountain, making it shine like silver.

It was pretty much what she imagined but better. Seeing it with her eyes just reminded her that it was real, and not a silly imagination.

Once they got into the house, Esmeralda tried not to faint. The outside was magnificent, but the inside was _breathtaking_.

There was a golden chandelier on the ceiling illuminating the living-room. There were various paintings by some artists she did not recognize, but she was certain that they were the originals that were usually worth millions. There was a marble staircase at the end of the room that didn't seem to have an end, a flat-screen T.V. on the wall opposite them, and wine colored sofas circulating the mahogany table at the center of the room. The floor itself was marble stone and looked like it had just been polished.

The way the room was decorated made it look like one of those pictures that would be on home magazines under titles like 'The ideal lifestyle' or something. Yet, it gave off an air that made her feel comfortable, and it somehow managed to look…homey.

All of a sudden, Djali jumped off Esmeralda's hands and ran towards the staircase. In order not to let Mrs. Knight think badly of her mother, Esmeralda chased after her dog. She needed to catch it before the Madame showed up. She ran up the staircase and found her stubborn dog…cuddled up between two slender legs.

Esmeralda gulped. _Oh no_.

The owner of the legs picked up the female mutt and looked her in the eyes. "You must be Djali. Aren't you a cutie?" The lady smiled at Esmeralda and returned the dog to her. "Be more careful with her, okay?"

Esmeralda nodded.

"Agnes!" the woman continued as she went to hug Esmeralda's mother. "How was the ride here? Hope it wasn't too stressful to pack all your belongings."

 _Nah_ , Esmeralda thought to herself. They didn't even have many belongings to begin with.

"It was no trouble, Mrs. Knight," her mother answered.

"What's with the formality?" the woman asked. "I've already told you. Call me Maria."

Esmeralda smiled to herself. This woman was becoming nicer and nicer every time she met her. She didn't need to be worried about the woman thinking badly of her mother. And even if she wanted to, she couldn't, because Esmeralda knew her mother was the most hardworking woman alive. And while she watched the two women sit and talk on one of the wine sofas, Esmeralda felt happy for her mother.

"Esmeralda," Mrs. Knight called to her. "Come sit with us. We need to chat."

Esmeralda smiled and sat beside her mom on the plush couch.

"So tell me," Mrs. Knight asked. "Are you excited to be going back to school on Monday?"

"To be totally honest," Esmeralda sighed. "No, not really."

Mrs. Knight nodded in understanding. "Well, I am excited for the new school year."

"Because your son will probably be appointed a Prefect?" Esmeralda tried not to roll her eyes. If that arrogant jerk was a Prefect this year, that would mean that he would have gotten the Prefect position for three years in a row! As if him being the Asst. Head Boy the previous year wasn't bad enough.

"Well, yes of course. But also because I get to see you dance again," Mrs. Knight smiled at her. "And I hear that talent scouts from various Performing Arts Schools will be visiting next year."

"Really?" Esmeralda asked in surprise. For the past two years, they hadn't shown up and when they did in her freshman year, she was too young to participate.

"Yes, but don't worry. With your talent, you'll wow them for sure."

Esmeralda blushed slightly at the compliment. "Thank you Mrs. Knight. I'll try my best not to let your money go to waste."

As mentioned earlier, special scholarships were given to some students to grant them the wish of attending WDA. There was also another system like this, but it was half-scholarship instead and was most commonly referred to as Charity Cases. This happened when some parents knew someone affiliated to WDA who would pay for half the school fees required. For this to happen, the student must be talented in one of the special skills the program offered. Esmeralda's talent was, of course, dancing. And her Charity helper was Mrs. Knight.

"Oh don't worry about that," Mrs. Knight assured her. "The best way you can make good use of my donation is to make sure you have fun. You're entering the Senior class, right? The same as my son?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Where is that boy, anyway?" Mrs. Knight wondered out loud. "Reginald!"

The man from earlier approached them. "Yes Madame?"

"Fetch my son from his room," she told him. "And make sure he comes down here." The butler nodded and climbed up the staircase.

Esmeralda's mom and Mrs. Knight continued chatting about who-knows-what, while Esmeralda fed Djali some crackers that were brought earlier. She was playing with her dog's nose which had some sticky crumbs on it when she heard a voice. An all too familiar voice she loathed.

"Good morning Mrs. Anderson," the voice said. "It's such a pleasure to have you in our home."

Esmeralda's back was facing the owner of the voice so she made a big deal of rolling her eyes. _Pleasure?_ _Puh-lease!_ Could he be any more fake?

"Good morning Esmeralda." Well that was a first. Since she'd known him, he'd never, _not once_ , greeted her. "I hope you find your stay here enjoyable."

When Esmeralda refused to face him, not to talk of giving him an answer, her mother nudged her. Esmeralda breathed through her nose and finally turned to face him. His stupid blonde hair was disheveled, he had a few facial hairs, and his clothes were rumpled. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that he just woke up.

"Good morning _Phoebus_. It's so nice to be here. Living under the same roof as you," Esmeralda lied and gave him a fake toothy smile.

Phoebus Knight. Son of her mother's boss since she was eleven. Enemy since freshman year. Blonde hair, blue eyes…y'know, the entire _package_. What made it worse was that he was a two-timing prefect. Three-timing if he became a prefect this coming year, which was highly probable. He was a jerk, had an ego thrice the size of his head, and was a first degree a-hole.

Phoebus just smirked in return. "I'm glad you're enjoying my home so far. Nice goat by the way."

Esmeralda frowned at him. "Djali is a dog. Although, I'm not surprised. Someone with a brain as tiny as yours is expected to get a lot of things mixed up."

Phoebus glared at her. "I wouldn't call my brain tiny, considering the fact that I'm a three-timing Prefect. And you're…oh right. You haven't really accomplished anything in school besides dancing the same _slutty_ dance all the time."

"My dancing is _not_ slutty."

"It is the way _you're_ doing it. What is your goal, anyway? Impress the spectators or seduce them to death?"

"Phoebus!" his mother said sternly. " _Enough_."

"What? That's how she dances," Phoebus muttered.

"And in what way has her dancing ever seemed inappropriate?" his mother wanted to know.

"Everything? I dunno. It's just the way she does it, I guess. Everyone in school says so."

"And does everyone in school saying it imply that it's true?"

Phoebus didn't answer.

"Does it?" Mrs. Knight repeated.

Phoebus groaned and rolled his eyes. "I guess not."

Mrs. Knight sighed and faced Esmeralda's mother. "I apologize for my son's behavior."

"Me too," Agnes said. "Esmeralda wasn't being too nice either."

 _Really mom? He basically just called your daughter a slut and you're still taking his side?_

"No it really wasn't her fault," Mrs. Knight said and gave Phoebus a hard look. "Why don't you show Esmeralda her _dog's_ new home. You can shower and get dressed after that."

Phoebus didn't look too pleased with that schedule. "But why? We don't need to be at WDA until around six."

"We're going out."

Phoebus made sure everyone in the room heard his groan before walking out of the room. Esmeralda followed suit with Djali cuddled up in her arms.

"We aren't going to a dog house, are we?" Esmeralda called after him. "She hates small places."

"Really now? Then how did she survive in your old home?"

Rude, much?

"She was able to stand it because I was there with her." If Esmeralda saw even a small part of a doghouse, she would turn around. She saw no reason why Djali couldn't stay in the house with them, anyway. It _was_ big enough.

"You're more than welcome to stay there with her, then."

What was up with this guy?

"Are you suggesting that I live in a _dog house_?"

"It's a step-up from your old home, believe me."

 _That's it!_

Esmeralda growled and walked right in front of Phoebus. "Listen here, _bucko_. I didn't come here from halfway across town to be insulted by the likes of you. If it were up to me, I wouldn't even _be_ here. My mom is just so lucky to have this job, and I'm not gonna let you ruin that with your stinkin' attitude. So you can keep being a jerk and an a-hole in school for all I care, but while we're here, don't mess with me. I don't care if it's your house but _do not_ insult me and my family!"

Esmeralda felt good with herself. Even Djali looked impressed.

Phoebus, on the other hand, seemed to find the situation funny. " _Bucko_?"

Esmeralda just stared at him for five seconds before rolling her eyes. _Unbelievable_ , she thought as she walked away.

"And where do you think you're going?" Phoebus asked her.

"To find the dog house. I think I would know it when I see it so just leave and quit bugging me."

"You might want to turn around."

Esmeralda stopped walking, but didn't turn around like he said. "And why is that?"

"'Cause we're there."

Esmeralda looked back at him to ask him what he meant when she saw him pointing to a small building. Of course she'd seen it earlier but she didn't think it would be the dog house.

"A shed?" she finally asked.

"Go on in," he nodded to her.

Esmeralda went inside and her eyes widened. 'Dog house' was an understatement to what this was. The shed was even bigger than the old apartment she used to live in. She didn't think she was going to agree with Phoebus but it _was_ a step-up from their old home. Djali jumped off her arms and ran around the room, barking happily.

Esmeralda turned back to see Phoebus leaning on the doorframe. "But isn't this a little, y'know, too much?" she asked him. "I mean, it's way too big for her to live here alone."

Phoebus raised his eye-brow in surprise. "You actually want to stay here with the dog? I was only kidding when I said that."

"It's not that, it's just…she's in a new home. And a bigger one at that. And I'll be gone for school so she wouldn't have any company and I just…I just want to be sure she's alright."

"But you've been attending WDA since freshman year. How did she survive?"

"She barely did and my mom was working all the time and barely had time for her. But then she was staying in the same apartment we'd stayed for years so she could get by. And once in a while, a neighbor offered to dog-sit, and of course, I was home every weekend. But now, I dunno whether I'll even have time, with it being Senior year and all…"

Phoebus watched her with sad eyes. "Hey, at least your mom's a live-in maid now. So she has plenty of time to keep your goat-dog company. And I'm sure when my mom's home, she wouldn't mind looking after it for you."

Esmeralda gave him a small smile. "First of all, Djali's a dog. No goat in her family line. And secondly, it's 'she' not 'it'. Get your pronouns straight. Other than that…thank you."

Phoebus laughed at her comment then looked confused. "Thank you? For what?"

"I dunno…for trying to make me feel better, I guess."

"Oh. Then you're welcome."

Noticing how close they were all of a sudden, Esmeralda immediately took a step backwards. "Don't take it the wrong way. I still think you're on the same level as Gaston in terms of jerkiness."

Phoebus looked at her with a raised eye-brow.

"Fine. _Almost_ the same level as Gaston," she corrected herself.

"Fair enough," Phoebus smirked at her. "Whereas I still think you're the most annoying person that ever lived."

"I get that a lot," Esmeralda joked. "Now get outa here. You stink. _Bad_."

"As you wish," he gave her a small bow before leaving the shed.

Esmeralda sighed and sat down on one of the bean-bag chairs. Almost immediately, Djali ran over to her and sat on her lap. "This is gonna be one heck of a school year, right Djali?" she asked her dog who had already fallen asleep. "But I have a feeling it's gonna be different," she smiled.

 _Good different_.

* * *

Zazu stopped driving and looked at the rear-view mirror of the limousine. He saw both Nala and Simba sleeping soundly, each at an end of the seat, clutching the controllers tightly to their chests. Zazu smiled and unlocked his seatbelt. He carefully got off his seat and climbed his way to the back of the vehicle.

Although it wasn't their first time falling asleep in the limo and Zazu should've gotten used to the climbing, but someone as old as he was needed more than practice to get to the backseat without breaking a bone. Zazu eventually succeeded in arriving to his destination without hurting himself…much.

It wasn't until he positioned himself between both kids that he saw their sleeping arrangements. Both kids had their backs to the windows with their knees close to their chests. Zazu smiled once more as he brought up his hand to wake Simba. He gave his action a second thought and redirected his arm to wake Nala instead.

"Nala, Nala wake up," he said softly as he patted her on the arm.

Nala stirred and opened her eyes a little before closing them again, drifting back to sleep.

Zazu sighed and repeated his actions. "Come on, Nala. We've reached the station, wake up."

That was all it took for Nala to be fully awake. She jolted up in an instant, nearly hitting Zazu's jaw with her head.

"We're there? Already? But that was so fast!" she panicked. "I thought you said the ride would take almost three hours!"

"And it did. It actually took two hours and fifty-three minutes," Zazu said smiling. "Even after that awful traffic and the fact that you both were four minutes late getting ready this morning, I'm still surprised that we're _not_ behind schedule. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite," he added with a grin.

Nala on the other hand, was far from grinning.

Zazu sighed. "Cheer up Nala. To be honest, I thought that you felt excited at the thought of going to a boarding school."

"I did…but now I feel nothing but puke coming up my throat."

"Oh, no, no, no, _not_ in the vehicle. You remember the last time that happened–"

"Ugh Zazu, that was just one accident and it's never gonna happen again," Nala scoffed and crossed her arms. "Besides, it was _your_ fault."

"What?" Zazu asked in a surprised tone. "How in the world was it my fault?"

"Well, if you hadn't teased Simba and I on being…a couple, I wouldn't have thrown up my lunch and Simba wouldn't have done a spit-take in the backseat."

"Well it certainly wasn't my fault," Zazu defended himself. "It was you two's lovey-dovey act that made me go to _that_ level."

"How is taking a quiz suddenly a lovey-dovey act?"

"You two were taking the BFF Quiz," Zazu answered like it was the clearest thing in the world.

"So? We were eleven, everyone took the BFF Quiz then," Nala answered, a bit confused.

The thought of the quiz made her remember the fifth through sixth grade. It was in that period most girls stopped seeing boys as disgusting, but rather, saw them cute. It was when girls were more conscious of their looks and started to care more about lip-gloss and dresses.

Nala smirked. As if the way they cared about those kinds of things _before_ the fifth-grade wasn't enough. The fifth through sixth grade was also the period girls started obsessing over stupid things like the color pink, Barbie, and most disgustingly, Hot Celebrities _especially_ Boy Bands.

Nala shuddered at the thought, for it was of course, 'The era it all started'. At least that's what she called it. But 'The Era' wasn't all that bad. Because no matter how bad something is, there's always an upside…or however that saying goes. Nala had to agree with it though, for it was after all, in the fifth grade that Nala became best friends with Simba. Sure, they've literally known each other since they were born and practically grew up together, but it wasn't until the fifth grade during Winter Break, that they made a pact to always be there for each other. And that pact hadn't been broken ever since.

Nala smiled at the memory.

"I agree with you," Zazu said, snapping her out of her thoughts. "But normally, the BFF Quiz is for people of the same gender."

Ah, yes. The infamous BFF Quiz, which was also included to the list of things girls from the fifth and sixth grade obsessed over. Nala was disgusted with herself for being one of those girls. But honestly, the quiz was so popular in their time that even some of the _boys_ took part in it.

Yes, you read that part right. Nala couldn't believe it herself. And she only decided to take part in the stupid quiz because the thing was released in lots of different magazines and on the internet a while after she and Simba made their pact. Besides, even after knowing Simba _her whole life_ , she found that there were still some things about Simba she didn't know, and she figured that it helped strengthen their friendship, which she was more than thankful for.

"Nothing was said about that. It just stated that it was for best friends regardless of the gender," Nala said and turned to face Zazu. "And I still don't get what this has to do with us behaving like a couple."

Zazu gave an exasperated sigh. "Fine. I guess it's not exactly explanatory, but if you had listened to yourselves, you'd understand that you two were actually flirting."

"Flirting?! Need I remind you that we were _eleven_?" Nala exclaimed, not believing what she heard.

"Why do you look surprised?" Zazu teased. "You looked all cute and innocent then. Pfft, acting like you didn't know what his favorite things were, just so you could get cozy with him while sharing the same magazine."

Nala's face turned red. "I didn't…I wasn't…not what you…I mean," she stuttered, a bit embarrassed.

"Hmm?" Zazu smirked.

Nala turned to her blouse and fiddled with the hem. "I honestly didn't know what some of his favorite things were. I only pretended not to know what most of them were because, well, Simba hardly knew anything about me then, so I just played along." She looked up and glared at him. "That's the only reason I acted the way I did. Because it definitely wasn't any of the dirty ideas _you_ had in mind."

"Okay, okay. I'll settle with that for now," Zazu said. "But that doesn't mean it was any less sickening. I mean, pretending not to know his favorite color? What's up with that?"

"To be honest, I didn't even know what his favorite color was," Nala said shyly.

"You didn't?"

"Yeah. I actually thought it was green–"

"It isn't?"

"What's with the two-word questions?" Nala asked.

"Never mind that. Isn't green his favorite color?"

"How come you don't know? Weren't you eavesdropping that day?"

"I was, but I turned up the volume of the radio when the flirting became unbearable."

"I told you we weren't – never mind," Nala sighed. "Yes, I actually thought his favorite color was green. Turns out, it's blue."

"It is?"

"So we're back to the two-word questions?"

Zazu ignored her question by asking another one. "So, is it your favorite color that's green?"

"No. Strangely enough, Simba thought so too. Mine's actually yellow."

"Oooh," Zazu cooed in realization. "So your real favorite colors form the color you both thought was the favorite color of the other."

"I'm not entirely sure that's a grammatically correct statement," Nala said with a raised eye-brow.

"Whatever. All I know is blue plus yellow equals green, and Simba plus Nala equals true love. It must be fate."

Nala stared at him for five seconds before saying, "You've been watching _way_ too many Romance movies."

Zazu glared at her, "Well whose fault is it?"

"Hey! I stopped watching chick-flicks a long time ago."

"Two weeks doesn't exactly fill the role of 'a long time'," Zazu commented using air-quotes with his fingers.

Nala was about to say something else, but was interrupted by Simba's loud snoring. It surprised her that Simba was the main topic of their discussion, and she had entirely forgotten that he was also in the limo.

No. What really surprised her was that Simba's snoring hadn't disturbed them. Not until that moment.

"What a pig," Nala muttered. "I can't believe this is the person you're pairing me up with. Honestly, it's degrading."

"What? Like you don't snore?" Zazu asked in an amused tone.

"I don't," Nala scoffed.

"Really? And you know that _how_? Because it is scientifically impossible to be aware of your surroundings while you're sleeping, not to talk of knowing whether you snore or not."

"Okay, since I don't really know, I'm going to ask you a question. And I need you to answer it honestly." Nala put her palms together and looked at him with pleading eyes. "Do I snore?"

"Yes."

Nala crossed her arms angrily, "You're lying."

"Why would I lie about such a thing?" Zazu asked innocently. "Besides, you asked me to tell you the truth. And if I were to be more truthful, I'd say it's even louder than Simba's."

Nala stared at the middle-aged man in disbelief. "Please tell me you're joking."

"I am," he laughed. "In fact, I don't think it's humanely possible for anyone's snores to be louder than Simba's."

Right on cue, another abnormally loud snort was echoed throughout the vehicle.

"My snoring is nowhere as bad as that, right?" Nala whispered.

"Don't worry, it's not," Zazu assured her.

Nala sighed in relief.

"I still don't get why you're acting like this," he continued. "Don't you like everything about Simba? _Even_ his annoyingly loud snoring?"

"What makes you think I like anything about Simba?"

"Now, now, don't get defensive. All I'm saying is, if you didn't like anything about Simba, you wouldn't be best friends with him, would you?"

"Well, I guess so…yeah," Nala said with a smile.

The truth was, Nala did like a lot of things about Simba, if not all. The way he got excited over little things like going to the zoo, or playing Frisbee in the park. The way he didn't seem to care about anything else in the world when playing soccer (it was his favorite sport). Even the way his eyes lit up every time he got an idea for an insane adventure for them to take…which always led them into trouble.

But Nala had to admit that even his obnoxious snores had grown on her. She would hate to say this to anyone – especially Zazu and Simba himself, because really, it was _disgusting_ – but the young teen's snoring was, in fact, one of the many things Nala liked about him. Also, as annoying as it was, it was one of the things that made Simba…well, _Simba_.

A loud snort echoed, as if to prove her point. Nala smiled even wider.

Zazu smirked at her.

The fourteen-year-old's smile immediately turned into a frown. "Well…even if he's my best friend and all, his snoring is still terrible. And I hate it."

"Suuure, of course."

"I'm serious! Are you even hearing yourself? It's his _snoring_ we're talking about!"

"Okay, okay. Why don't we talk about another one of the _many_ things you just love about Simba?"

"You seem to have forgotten that we're taking off to Disney Village for school today."

"You're right," Zazu said, glancing at his watch. "You still have about forty minutes before your train leaves the Station."

"Really? When did we get here?"

"About twenty minutes ago, which means that we've been talking for fifteen minutes straight."

"Took you a whole five minutes to get you to the back?"

"…Yes."

Nala sighed. "Why don't you just use the door like a normal person?"

"I would, but you two always seem to be comfortable leaning on the door," Zazu explained. "If I had opened one of the doors, one of you might've fallen and hurt yourself." Zazu paused to think about his reactions. "You're right. I really should've used the door."

"Glad to know you love us," Nala said dryly.

Zazu just smiled and walked towards the door.

"Wait, where're you going?" Nala called after him.

"I'm going to take care of your luggage."

"I'm coming with you."

"No. I'm giving you a very important job," Zazu said, looking past Nala and stared directly at Simba.

Nala followed his gaze and her eyes widened when she understood what he was talking about. "Oh no, please don't tell me–"

"I'm giving you the honor of waking Simba up."

"Why me?"

"I never thought that I'd be glad to say this, but it is my job as your care-taker to 'take care' of your belongings." Zazu paused to laugh at his own joke. "See what I did there? Care-taker? Take care? Get it? You see, I–"

"Yeah I get it," Nala interrupted. "But do I have to–"

Then _she_ was interrupted. And it wasn't by Zazu. It was another one of Simba's infamous loud snorts.

"You know the drill," Zazu said quickly as he opened the door. "Good luck." And he was gone.

Nala sighed, "Yeah, yeah." She stood up and walked towards a box in the corner of the limo. After a long search of its contents, the teen finally found what she was looking for. She walked over to the sleeping boy and smiled at his facial expression. She'd seen him asleep so many times that she practically memorized every detail.

The way his strawberry-blonde hair cupped his face, the way his lips were parted, the way his long eyelashes slightly brushed his high cheekbones, even up to the drool that were always at the corner of his mouth. Nala wrinkled her nose in disgust. All those girls that thought Simba was cute would instantly change their minds if they got the sight of his sleeping form.

Though, it wasn't any much of a difference to Nala. After all, Simba was still Simba. Starting from the loud and obnoxious first grader, to the adorable and cute fourth grader (according to the girls in the fourth grade and above), to the soccer playing sixth grade star, even up to the popular hottie in the eighth grade. Apparently, the fact that he wasn't one of the tallest people his age wasn't unfortunate on his side.

Nala shook her head of the reminiscing thoughts. She had to deal with the problem at hand.

 _Waking Simba Up_.

Another loud snort was heard. He really was a pig.

Nala squatted beside the boy. She took out the object gotten from the box and positioned it neither too far nor too near from Simba's ear. She pressed the button and a loud sound echoed through the space of the vehicle from the blow-horn.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

 **o** Flynn and Aladdin are also best friends here. Yeah, I know...so unoriginal. Trust me when I say that I tried my best not to form this friendship so it wouldn't look like I'm copying from anybody else's story. But they just seem to fit so well. They're both thieves who ended up getting married to princesses that had been caged up all their lives. I just had to make them best buds. What I can praise myself about though, is that they're also best friends with Tiana. I chose her because she kinda balances with them well in the friendship. Like if they try to go too far with something, she puts them back in line. Kinda like Hermione Granger in the Golden Trio. Also, who likes the way I added Genie into the story?

 **o** Sorry if the part with Tinkerbell and her friends dragged on too long. Personally, I enjoyed all the Disney Fairies movies and I get a bit angry when some Disney high fics only portray them as the bad guys that want to ruin Peter and Wendy's relationship. Also, just because I obviously like Tinkerbell doesn't mean I'm gonna let Tiger Lily wear the bad guy shoes. Note that this part was written in Tink and her friend's point of views which is why TL was portrayed as an annoying brat. Something about this story is that you shouldn't easily judge a character. Tiger Lily might seem like a bad person here, but she might not be such an awful person through another character's eyes. Also, who else loved the friendship circle between the fairies? And who would you most likely be in your own friendship circle? I'm probably a mix between Silvermist and Fawn :)

 **o** To those of you who didn't recognize the characters Max, Bobby, Roxanne & co. you should go watch A Goofy Movie. It's awesome. To the rest of you that are familiar with said characters, let me just tell you that I'm going to enjoy writing Max and Roxanne's relationship. Clara Cow-belle's actual name is Clarabelle Cow, and she's a character from the Mickey Mouse Cartoons. No, she's not Stacey's mother in the movie. I just tweaked that a little for plot development. Also, did I handle the relationship Max has with Bobby and PJ well? I'm not a guy so...

 **o** Writing Esmeralda was super fun. Like I said earlier, just 'cause a character is not liked by another, doesn't make said character a bad person. Phoebus may seem like a huge jerk in Esmeralda's eyes but he's really not. He isn't a three-timing Prefect for no reason. Plus, it looks like Esmeralda is having different thoughts of him towards the end. But don't expect them to just start fawning over each other, after all, it's just the first chapter. What are your thoughts on how these two's plot will progress?

 **o** Writing Nala has got to be my absolute favorite in this chapter. Idk why, but the conversation she had with Zazu was just too silly XD. I pictured Zazu's job to be their butler slash Mufasa's assistant, but ended up being like an uncle to the kids and was practically part of the family. Which part of this chapter was your favorite?

 **Side Note** : I know, this was way too long, especially for a first chapter. And I apologize. Believe it or not, I did remove some parts before it came down to this. The next three or so chapters will also be long (though not nearly as long as this), but when the introductions are done and the real plot starts, each chapter will be about 6k words. An easy read. I promise!

Please review and let me know your thoughts so far, constructive criticism will be highly appreciated. Though, if you have absolutely nothing to comment, you can just answer the questions asked above in the author's notes section. I would really love to hear from you guys. **Also** don't be discouraged because the Disney Princesses did not appear. Like I said, the first few chapters will be introductory chapters and I want to use this medium to introduce the characters most of you may not know so that you'll be familiar with them when the actual plot starts.

Trust me when I say this, the entire story revolves around the twelve Disney princesses, so don't worry. You'll see plenty of them soon. I know for a fact that at least three of them show up in the next chapter ;)

~Till then, and have a nice day!


	3. Not so Nine and Three-quarters

**Disclaimer** **:** I do not own any of the characters portrayed here. They all belong to Disney and Pixar.

 **Word count** **:** 16,000. Still too long. So very sorry.

 **Dedication** **:** To a guest reviewer, Andrea, for her lovely comment. I apologize again for making the part with Tinkerbell and her friends too long(though I must admit, I had a lot of fun with that part. Maybe that's why it dragged on longer than necessary), and I'm glad you like my take on this trope so far. I hope I don't disappoint! Although, I do recommend watching at least the first Disney Fairies movie. Not for understanding their plot in this story or anything, basically just for enjoyment. If you like the rest of the Disney Movies, I'm certain you'll like this one :)

 **Date Updated** **:** September 16, 2016. Three weeks since my last update. Sorry for the way overdue chapter.

 **Author** **:** YooniquelyOresum.

 **I would like to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone that reviewed, favorited and followed this story. You have no idea how happy I am for all you to give this same old 'Disney high' fic a chance. I will try my best to make this story as interesting as I can :)**

* * *

"Not so Nine and Three-quarters" _\- my lame attempt at a reference to the Harry Potter series..._

* * *

 **.**

 _ **Friday, September 9**_

(Afternoon)

 **.**

The Animation Central Station was bustling with liveliness. People with children, or suitcases in various shapes, sizes and colors crowded the platforms of the Station one Friday Afternoon. Some of these people had the intentions of travelling to their various work places, or going back home after a long summer vacation spent in another town or country. But mostly, people were at the Station to get back to school to the famous Walt Disney Academy.

Out of all the platforms in the Station, Platform Nine was the busiest. This platform held the train that was headed for Disney Village. A particular blonde stood at the entrance of the platform, trying to ward off goodbye kisses she was getting from her father.

"Da-ad! Do you have to do this every time I leave for school?" she asked as her father refused to free her of a tight hug – which was getting suffocating, by the way.

"You can't blame me for missing my daughter," he complained, not loosening his grip on her. "It'll be a whole year without seeing my ray of sunshine!"

"Now, now, Stefan," the blonde's mother said as she tore the reluctant man away from their daughter. "Aurora will be in the Junior class this coming Monday. She's a big girl, now."

The man pouted. "I know that. Doesn't mean I like it."

"Aww, Daddy. You know I'm gonna miss you too," the girl known as Aurora told her father.

The man just gave her a teary smile, pulling her into yet another hug.

"Hey, remember me?" the mother called to them. "I'm the woman who carried you for nine months and endured _eighteen_ hours of labor. It would be nice to be given a little love once in a while, you know."

Aurora smiled when she saw the playful glint in her mother's eyes. "Stop whining, mom," she laughed as she turned to give her mother a hug instead. "You know I'll always prefer you to dad."

An indignant "Hey!" shot out in the background. The two ladies just laughed. Another series of hugs and cries and laughter ensued until Aurora decided it was finally time for her to leave before she missed her train.

"You'll take good care of yourself, okay?" her father asked.

"I will, dad," Aurora smiled. "The same way I have done for the past _two_ years."

"Yes, Stefan. Stop being such a cry-baby," her mother said – although trying her best not to cry, herself. "Besides, she's got my sisters watching over her."

"That's what I'm worried about," the man muttered.

"And what do you mean by that?" her mother asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"I love you Leah, you know I do. But your sisters…well, they're not exactly… _reliable_."

Aurora smirked. The train could wait. This was going to be _good_.

"Oh really? I hope you do realize that my sisters took care of Aurora for the past two years and she's perfectly fine."

"That's because Aurora is mature. If anything, Aurora was the one looking after _them_."

"I admit, my sisters tend to be a bit…distracted at times. But I know them. Once given a responsibility to take care of, they do it well."

Her father snorted. "Yeah right. I bet if for some reason we needed them to look after Aurora for us when she was a baby, she wouldn't live to see her sixteenth birthday!"

"Okay dad," Aurora cut in. "Don't you think you're exaggerating just a little?"

"A little?" Aurora's mother cried, causing a few passers-by to stare. "He just said my sisters are capable of killing my own daughter!"

"Well, they could! Or have you forgotten about that time that they lost Aurora in the woods?"

"Guys, stop," Aurora tried to say. "People are staring–"

"Stefan, please! It was at camp and they were playing hide-and-seek. You're just too over-protective!"

"And you're not protective enough!"

"I definitely am! I love her much more than you do!"

"If you really did, you wouldn't put your daughter's life in the hands of those…those…"

"Those _what_?"

"GUYS!"

The parents stopped their arguments to face their flustered daughter.

"I love you both, and thank you so much for your concern, but I'll be _fine_ ," Aurora assured them. "And no matter how crazy my aunts may be, they're still awesome. And they've done a very good job in taking care of me, so don't worry. Besides, I'm going to miss you more than the two of you are going to miss me _combined_."

"Don't bet on that," her father smiled.

"Come here, honey," and she was pulled into another – but _final_ – hug, before she was finally free to go.

As she pushed her cart of suitcases, she turned back to smile at her parents. They both had their arms around each other as they smiled and waved at her. She waved back.

She turned back around as she walked into the platform and searched for her friends.

* * *

"Now put your index finger on the third string to get the B-clef note…no, no Eilonwy, soft strokes only…Taran try to press your finger against the neck harder…no, no! I said B-clef, that's B-sharp!"

Taran Dallben frowned as he tried to follow the instructions his Private Music Instructor, Fflewddur Fflam, was currently giving him. He looked to the seat beside him to face Eilonwy Llyr, the only other person besides him that was taking lessons. He gave a small chuckle as he saw that the blonde girl was having as much trouble as he was with the lesson, if not more.

Eilonwy Llyr was Taran's neighbor, and while they were not particularly best friends, they did have most of their Private lessons together. Especially, Fflewddur's music classes.

"Taran!" his instructor yelled. "That was an off-key note! Are you even paying attention?"

Taran sighed and put his instrument down. "You know what, Fflewddur? You're absolutely right. It's a long day and we've been practicing for _hours_ , I think we deserve a break."

His instructor gave him an unimpressed look. "It's been thirty minutes, Taran."

"All the more reason!" Taran told him. "You haven't eaten for a whole thirty minutes! Why don't you go downstairs to the kitchen? There's more than enough for a pre-brunch snack."

Fflewddur's eyes lit up. "You're right. Snack break, people! I'll be back in an hour." Then he quickly hurried out of the room.

Eilonwy eyed him suspiciously, her instrument still in her hands. "Why did you get rid of him?"

He just shrugged. "Because we needed a break."

"We don't need a break, we barely even started."

"Eilonwy, we've been having Violin Lessons for a week. And we stink."

She rolled her eyes. "That's because we've been playing for only a week. You can't expect us to be good at it all of a sudden."

"Look, the point isn't that I'm not good. It's that I simply don't care," he walked to the front of the room to take a bottled water. "Honestly, if I hear one more thing about a G-chef or a G-clarf, I'm going to lose it."

"Well, it's not that bad," she argued. "We just need a little more time, that's all."

"Right, right," he said as he walked back to his seat. "And how's your _neck_ doing?" he teased, knowing full well that Eilonwy had been complaining about having a stiff neck since they started the lessons. Honestly, listening to the violin was nice and all, but actually playing it was _torture_. Why hadn't their parents insisted on them taking a much simpler instrument, like the harp or something?

Eilonwy frowned and snatched the bottle from his hands. "My neck is doing fine, thanks for asking."

Taran laughed as he watched the blonde tentatively put her hand up to her neck, which earned him a "Shaddup" from her.

"So, you ready for high school?"

"Please, I was born ready," she said confidently as she drank out of the bottle.

"Because you're certain you'll be popular?"

Eilonwy had always been among the 'popular crowd' in school, while he was…well, _not_. That was part of the many reasons why she and Taran never spoke much, except during their private lessons.

"Popular? That's the furthest thing from my mind."

Liar. Eilonwy could act all she wanted, and be the pretty blonde cheerleader in school for all he cared. But here, in this very room, was where the real Eilonwy was. The Eilonwy nobody else but him knew. And he could see right through her.

"You're scared," he whispered softly, not even realizing he had said it out loud.

"What?"

"WDA is much bigger than Castle Middle School," he continued. "You're scared that you won't get as much recognition because there are more people to compete with."

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Eilonwy stammered. "And I'm not going to school for the popularity."

Taran stared intently at her, whereas she tried not to meet his gaze.

He opened his mouth to say something else when Fflewddur suddenly barged into room. "A little change of plans," he told them. "Somebody's mother caught me ravaging the fridge and she was not too happy with it." He finished, looking directly at Eilonwy, who now practically had sparkles in her eyes.

"Mother's home?" she asked excitedly and stood up, ready to leave, but the Instructor stopped her.

"Not so fast, young lady. As I said earlier, she's in a really sour mood and told me that none of us should even step foot downstairs until the lesson is over."

"What?" Taran groaned as he sank into his seat. "But that's like _five hours_ to go!"

"Then I suppose you better get ready. Now position you instruments, and B-clef!"

* * *

Snow White stood in the middle of Platform Nine as her eyes scanned the place in search of any one of her two best friends. She smiled and waved at a few schoolmates she recognized, corrected the flashy red bow atop her raven bob, and checked her compact mirror to be sure her makeup was not ruined by the sweaty beads that started to form on her forehead. After about thirty minutes of standing under the hot sun, Snow started to get impatient. She groaned as she pulled out her iPhone from her purse. They were late, _again_.

'where r u? i've been standing here for half an hour!' But before she got to hit send, she instantly felt a rush of weight on her, and a pair of slender arms flung around her neck. She flinched as a wave of blonde hair slapped her in the face.

"Snow!" the person screeched in Snow's ear.

The petite brunette, still trying to regain balance, squirmed under her friend's weight. "Rorie…could you please… _get_ _off_ …?"

"Sorry Snow," the blonde smiled and let go of her small friend. "I'm not too late, am I?"

Snow glared at her. "Late? You're more than late, Aurora. I've been standing here for so long I think I got a _tan_."

Aurora rolled her eyes. "Please Snow. With a skin as pale as yours, you couldn't get a tan even if you tried."

Snow swatted at her friend's arm playfully. "Whatever. But this habit of yours has to stop."

"Sure _mom_ , I'll keep that in mind. And besides, I was actually on time today. But my parents had like this stupid playful argument at the entrance."

"Again? That's starting to become a habit," Snow said as she straightened her pale-yellow pencil skirt.

"Nah, my dad's just stubborn. If he's not picking fights with my mom, he'll be doing that with Phillip's dad…" she trailed off and her face was suddenly filled with worry.

Knowing that her friend was suddenly uncomfortable and obviously did not feel like talking about it, Snow decided to change the subject. "So, how was Paris?"

The blonde's violet eyes lit up. "Oh, Paris was wonderful! The music, the food, the fashion! Oh, the _fashion_! I got a couple of things I knew you guys would love. There was this beautiful purple feather boa that would've looked absolutely perfect on you! And the shoes! I saw this fabulous pair of glass-like slippers that Ella would _kill_ for. But I couldn't get it 'cause it came in only one size which was, like, a _million_ sizes too small. I mean, four and a half? Nobody's feet are _that_ tiny!"

Snow smiled as she watched her friend gush over her trip. "Looks like you had a lot of fun."

"Oh I did!" then she looked down at her pink flats and smiled sheepishly. "Though I would probably have enjoyed it more if I could…speak French."

Unbelievable. Leave it to Aurora who is of French heritage from both sides of her family to not understand her own language. "Rorie, your dad's mom is French. So are your mom's cousins. And you did French all through Freshman and Sophomore year."

"Okay, so I know the easy stuff like conjugating verbs and things like that, but I can't translate actual sentences from what people are saying. Especially when they're saying it so fast in that hard-to-understand accent."

"Excuses, excuses," Snow smiled at her.

"Whatever," Aurora smiled back. "So how was the convention with the Evil Queen?"

That was what Aurora and their other best friend, Ella, called Snow's step-mother. They had thought of it because of the woman's wickedness and overall disdain for the trio. To be quite honest, the name was actually fitting. Of course Snow hadn't approved of it, but that didn't stop them. Eventually, they got used to the nickname and Snow sometimes feared that they would, one day, mistakenly say it to her face.

"Believe it or not, it wasn't half bad. At least I got free samples from each of the products," Snow replied, not even bothering to correct her that her step-mother's name was not 'Evil Queen' like she usually did.

Evil Queen – or Grimhilde, which was her _actual_ name – was the founder of a large Beauty company under the brand name, _Mirror_. She sold various beauty products such as beauty cream, body lotion, makeup and the likes. Over the summer, Grimhilde held Beauty Conventions in various towns across Fantasia to advertise new sets of products made by the Mirror Industry. She also took Snow along with her, which was quite a surprise to Snow and her friends. Normally, she didn't want to have anything to do with Snow. But she had insisted Snow followed her claiming that since Snow was most likely going to take over the company later, she had to learn how to run the business.

And Snow was elated. Not necessarily about the business running part, she honestly couldn't care less about the company. But because she was finally doing something with her step-mother, which was really all she wanted. Granted, Grimhilde was not acting nice to her all of a sudden – that would've been too weird, anyway – and she pretty much treated her the way she always did. But the fact that she actually took her to the Convention made Snow feel like she was gradually becoming part of her step-mom's world. Sure, it was a world filled with hairspray and artificial beauty, but it was her world nevertheless. And Snow wanted nothing more than to finally become part of it.

"Free samples?" Aurora whined. "You didn't use it all already, did you?"

"Nah, don't worry about it," Snow assured her. "I brought enough for you and Ella."

Aurora clapped her hands in excitement. "Yay. Your step-mom may be evil and all, but she makes the best products."

Snow just rolled her eyes and glanced at her phone. "It's almost eleven thirty. If Ella doesn't come soon, she might miss the train."

"Oh, don't worry. If she's in trouble or something, she'll call us."

"I guess so," Snow sighed and put her phone back in her purse. "Are you excited for the school year?"

"Well, of course. I know some people might not be, but I just have this feeling that this school year is going to be great!" Aurora was practically jumping now. "And to top it off, we're finally upperclassmen!"

Snow raised her eye-brows at that comment. "Upperclassmen?"

"Yeah, you know. Like the Freshmen and Sophomores are lower-classmen, and the Juniors and Seniors are in the upper class."

"I'm not sure that's how the High School system works."

"Forget about it, Snow. You can always count on Aurora to make up stupid stuff."

Both girls turned to face the owner of the voice.

"Ella!" they both shouted and Aurora went to tackle the third girl just as she did to Snow.

"Choking…can't breathe…"

"Let go of her, Rorie," Snow said and practically tore the tall blonde away from the shorter – but still taller than Snow – girl.

The strawberry blonde was about to thank Snow when Snow herself, wrapped her arms around her. Ella rolled her eyes but returned the hug nevertheless. "There's no way you guys missed me this much. We skyped each other the entire summer!"

"Yeah, but that was also two months without seeing you in person," Aurora smiled, joining in on the hug.

After about three minutes of staying in the same position, Ella groaned. "Okay, hug's over." The two girls protested but eventually complied.

They stood in the platform and chatted each other of how their holidays were spent.

"Four and a half?" Ella asked in disbelief once Aurora had told her of Paris. "I know _my_ feet are pretty small, but four and a half is just dumb. And you're sure it's not like some kiddie shoe or something?"

Aurora rolled her eyes. "I think I would know a kiddie shoe when I see it. And that was definitely _not_ one."

Snow smiled and turned to face Ella. "How come you're so late? Did something happen?"

Ella just shrugged. "Anastasia and Drizella, the usual."

Snow frowned. "They didn't mistreat you or anything, did they?"

"Nah, don't worry. They really can't do anything when step-mother isn't around."

Aurora sighed. Anastasia and Drizella were Ella's step-sisters. They were always trying to make Ella feel inferior and bossing her around. And her step-mother wasn't any better either. Both Snow and Aurora were shocked to find out that Ella's step-mother had allowed Anastasia and Drizella to treat Ella as if she were a maid when they were at home.

When either Aurora or Snow had insisted on reporting to someone, Ella just waved it off saying it was just a few chores and it wasn't like they were beating her or anything like that. "Besides," she would tell them when they persisted. "They can't really do anything to me in school." And then she would immediately change the subject.

Aurora was especially not happy with the fact that both her best friends had horrible step-families and she couldn't really relate to them considering her family was…well, awesome.

"You're sure you're alright?" the tall blonde asked, putting her hand on Ella's shoulder.

Ella tried not to look annoyed. "I'm fine, okay? They were just telling me to carry all their suitcases to the Suitcase Compartment for them, when they saw that Charming guy and left me alone. I simply used that time to escape."

Snow smiled. "I'm glad." Then she crossed her arms and smirked. "And his name is _Charmant_. Charles _Charmant_."

Ella smiled. "Yeah, which is practically French for Charming."

"It is?" Aurora asked. "I thought it was just some dumb nickname your step-sisters came up with."

Ella laughed. "Didn't you just say you went to Paris? How the heck did you communicate when you know _zero_ French?"

"I _so_ know French!" Aurora said, knowing full well it was a blatant lie.

Snow and Ella just laughed. Aurora laughed with them too until she was suddenly struck with realization. "Wait…did you just say Charles is here?"

"Yeah, so?" Ella asked, not understanding why Aurora was suddenly fidgeting.

"That means Phillip is probably here too, right?"

"Yeah, I think I saw him with Charles earlier," Ella answered, still confused. "But why… _oh_." Then she remembered.

Snow sighed. "You haven't talked to him yet, have you?"

Aurora shook her head. "I haven't had the chance to."

"Well here's your chance," Ella said as she stared at someone walking towards them.

"Oh no!" the blonde panicked and dove behind Snow. "I can't let him see me. Hide me!"

Ella stared at the girl. "I'm guessing you never won the hide-and-seek game as a kid," she said when the almost 5"10 blonde chose to hide behind the small brunette that was barely five feet.

Aurora glared at her. "Now is not the time for stupid comments," she hissed then turned to Snow. "Please…I can't talk to him right now."

"Um…" Snow said as she scanned the area for a good hiding place for her over-dramatic friend. _Oh, crud_. She didn't do well under pressure. "Ella, a little help?"

The strawberry blonde crossed her arms. "Not until Aurora apologizes for calling my perfectly useful comments stupid," she said stubbornly.

" _Ella_!" they both hissed at her.

"Fine, fine."

Soon enough, they found a pillar for Aurora to hide behind. Lame? Yes, but it was the best hiding place they could find.

"I still don't get why we're helping her with this," Ella muttered to Snow. "He goes to school with us. She can't hide from him forever."

"We'll talk about it later," Snow whispered as the tall – and not to mention, _handsome_ – teen finally reached them.

"Hey girls," the boy grinned at them.

"Hi Phillip!" Snow said, a little too enthusiastically. "It's me and Ella here. Just me and Ella…nobody else but us."

Aurora rolled her eyes from behind the pillar. Snow was so bad at lying.

Ella shook her head. "Dial it down, will ya?" then she turned to the boy. "Hi Phillip. Long time no see."

Phillip furrowed his eye-brows. "We saw earlier today. With Charles and your sisters, remember?"

"Yeah," Ella laughed nervously. "But that was like an hour ago. That's a pretty long time if you ask me."

Correction: They were both bad at lying. Aurora wondered how these two had the worst possible family imaginable yet they were so kind and nice and…well, _horrible_ liars.

"So, what's up?" Snow asked.

"I was hoping to speak to Aurora," then he glanced at the two girls in front of him. "I could've sworn she was here a minute ago."

"What?" Snow asked nervously. "You must be seeing things. Aurora isn't here, she's…she simply hasn't come yet. You know she's always late. Probably still sleeping. That girl could sleep for a hundred years if she could."

Ella, not knowing what to say, simply nodded.

"No," Phillip said, still confused. "I'm certain I saw her with you."

"Uh…" Ella stuttered. "She's in the ladies' room."

"Ladies' room?" Phillip frowned. "Didn't you just say she hasn't shown up yet?"

"Yeah…she hasn't shown up yet…from the ladies' room…" Ella replied, not even sure of what she was saying.

"So…she fell asleep on the toilet, huh?" Phillip asked and crossed his arms.

 _That tone_ , Aurora thought from behind the pillar. He knew they were lying.

Aurora guessed that her friends were aware they weren't fooling him anymore. But that didn't stop them from trying.

"Yeah!" Snow spoke up. "You know Aurora can sleep _anywhere_."

Phillip smirked. "But shouldn't you call her? To wake her up?" he asked, already bringing out his phone from his pocket.

"NO!" they both shouted

"She's probably not sleeping," Snow said quickly.

"Yeah," Ella agreed. "She's probably doing…number two or something."

Aurora cringed. She _did not_ just say that.

Phillip got the hint and laughed. "Okay, okay. Just tell her I want to talk to her when she comes out of the ladies' room…or that pillar over there."

Snow and Ella looked shocked while Aurora smirked as she came out from behind the pillar. "If you knew all along, why didn't you just spare them?"

Phillip shrugged. "I guess I wanted to see how far they could go and what they would come up with," he smiled at her.

Aurora smiled back then quickly averted her gaze to the ground.

Phillip noticed this and sighed. "I guess I'll see you in school then."

"Yeah," Aurora said softly, still not lifting her head to face him.

Phillip sighed one more time, smiled at Ella and Snow, then left.

Once he was out of sight, Snow put her hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Rorie…are you okay?"

Aurora looked up and glared at them. "I'm capable of sleeping _anywhere_? I was doing the _number two_? Did you really have to mention that?"

"Hey, if anything, blame Phillip," Ella said defensively. "He knew we were lying the whole time but didn't stop us."

"We're really sorry, Rorie," Snow said.

"It's okay, I'm the one that asked you guys to lie for me. Remind me to never make that mistake again."

Snow laughed.

"Okay, I can't take this anymore," Ella suddenly said. "What is the deal with you and Phillip, anyway?"

"Ella," Snow warned.

"No Snow. We avoided talking about this the whole summer and I'm dying to know. What did he do?"

Aurora bit her lip. "I already told you that we're–"

"Engaged, I know," Ella rolled her eyes. "But it's not like it's his fault."

Now, before you rub your eyes or clean the dirt off the lens of your glasses, just know: Yes, _engaged_.

Aurora's father was the owner of a major corporation. And so was Phillip's father. To spare you the boring details of shares and the stock market, the term used here will simply be, _Partnership_. In the world of the elite, everything in their life had to do with money. So even though Aurora's father's company was doing well on its own and so was Phillip's father's company, it simply wasn't enough. They always wanted more. Which brought in the concept of Partnership: gaining money twice as much.

Another detail that was never over-looked in the Elite World was marriage. It was generally known to be a taboo for a child of such a prestigious background to get married to someone in the… _middle class_. In order to avoid this, parents simply sent them to wealthy Private Schools. When that wasn't enough, they usually paired them up with the children of their fellow Company holders. Some parents didn't necessarily tell them exactly who they were to be with, but instead, gave them a range of people that were acceptable.

Such is the weird way rich people behave.

Now, back to Aurora and Phillip. Both their parents were partners in the business for as long as they could remember. As they got older, it came to their knowledge that their fathers often fought over who was going to take over the Joint Business when their children came of age. Which, after much deliberation, finally ended with them sealing an engagement. Meaning, both Aurora and Phillip had legal ownership of the business and would run it _together_.

Aurora didn't mind the idea of running the business with Phillip. When she was younger, she always knew she would end up working with him, and she was honestly very happy with that. It was the engagement part that turned her off.

Aurora sighed. "I know it's not his fault, and I know I'm not the only one that has this problem…it's just…I've known Phillip since we were little but I've never really thought of him that way…"

"I thought you admitted you had a crush on him last year," Snow asked.

"I did…but if we do end up dating, I want it to be because we want to, not because we have no choice."

"I still don't see the problem," Ella said. "Edward and Giselle are also engaged, and they're not complaining."

Snow glared at her.

"What? It's true," Ella shot her arms up defensively. "And they've been dating since they were freshmen."

"Just 'cause they're okay with it doesn't mean I have to be," Aurora said angrily. "You won't be okay with it either if your parents suddenly announced to you that you were going to get married to one of your friends. I just had this thing tossed to me, it's not like I knew all along!"

"Yeah, Phillip didn't know either," Ella muttered.

"Ella's right, you know," Snow agreed. "Phillip is in the same position as you. It's unfair to keep avoiding him. If you just talked to him–"

"Then what?" Aurora asked. "What do you expect me to say to him? Everything's gonna be awkward around us now 'cause we're getting…married."

"But it doesn't have to be–" Snow started.

"Well it is," Aurora sighed. "I'm just not ready to talk to him yet, okay?" When none of her friends said something else, Aurora added. "Can we please stop talking about my forced love-life and instead focus on Snow's instead?"

Both Aurora and Ella turned to the petite girl with wide grins on their faces. The girl just rolled her eyes. "Ferdinand asked me out, it's no big deal."

It was Ella's turn to roll her eyes, "He asked you on the last day of school."

"Which could only mean one thing," Aurora giggled.

"He wants you guys to start the school year as an item!" they both squealed.

Snow shook her head as she watched her best friends jump up and down, giggling like a pair of twelve-year-olds. After several futile attempts in getting them to stop their little display of madness – because really, Ferdinand asking her was _not_ a big deal, and it wasn't like they were suddenly boyfriend and girlfriend or anything like that – she shrugged and decided to join them, neither of the trio giving a hoot of what passers-by thought of their display.

* * *

Platform Nine was always so nice to watch this time of the year. The Freshmen always looked around nervously as they walked around the Platform taking everything into memory. The Sophomores and Juniors just laughed and chatted with the friends they hadn't seen during the summer vacation. While the Seniors lounged lazily, leaning on the pillars as they smiled with their friends, knowing this would be the last time they would be boarding the train.

Jane Porter sat on one of the benches at a corner as she sketched all of this in her Sketch-Pad. She always enjoyed watching the scenery and tried to capture every moment in her drawing. Jane herself was a senior, and while she was very glad to be in her last year of school – _finally_ – she also knew she was going to miss it very much. She had bought the Sketch-Pad specifically for capturing all of her favorite moments of her senior year. Kind of like a diary or journal, but with drawings instead.

She was currently focusing on a sketch she was drawing of a pretty brunette, who was most likely a freshman, and her family. Her father was a rather large man with dark raven hair and mustache and her mother was a lean woman with dirty blonde hair. The girl also had two little boys with her, whom Jane assumed were her little brothers. The girl was also most likely the first child of the family which explained why the mother didn't stop hugging her, the brothers had sad looks on their faces, and the father was giving her a stern look like he was telling her the do's and don'ts of what to do in a Boarding School.

She was in the middle of adding a few more shades to the girl's light blue skirt, when someone obstructed her view. Jane frowned and was about to face her attention to another family, when she took notice of the person that had come into view.

He was actually handsome.

No. Handsome was not the right word. Good looking? Well yes. _Very_ , actually. But that was not quite the word she was looking for either. A whole five minutes passed when she eventually gave up. Which she found strange, really. She was usually very good with words.

Turning to a fresh page of her Sketch-Pad, Jane started to draw. Yes, she was drawing the word-she-hadn't-quite-figured-out-yet boy. So what? She did say she wanted to capture the nice moments in her pad and this guy was _very_ nice too look at.

She started with the face. She sketched the minor details and focused on his hair. He had dark brown dreadlocks that fell loosely on his broad shoulders. Then she went the other parts of his tanned body. Once she had done a quick drawing of his silhouette, she went back to his face. She added more strokes to the sides of his face to pronounce more on his chiseled jaw. He had very bushy dark eyebrows that looked un-kept, yet the look really worked well for him.

Then she went to his eyes. The eyes were always Jane's favorite part of the human body. You can tell a lot about a person just by staring into their eyes. Not just by looking at the color, but by reading the story each person had to tell. As Jane delicately drew the boy's eyes, she tried to read his story. They were a dark shade of emerald, and looked both determined and focused. The eyes itself, made his whole expression form into a stoic manner. As she tried to add more details to his face, she found herself getting lost into his forest green eyes. She stopped drawing and just stared at the his really pretty eyes. Something about them was just mesmerizing. They looked so…so... _exotic_.

Yes. That was the word that described him perfectly. _He looked exotic_.

The guy must've noticed that someone was staring at him – because really, if someone was staring at your face for nothing less than ten minutes, you're bound to notice – and for a moment, their eyes locked.

Green eyes met blue ones.

She stared.

He stared.

And they continued like that for a while until…

Oh no. Oh, no, no, no, no, _no_.

He had caught her.

He had caught her staring.

He had caught her staring _at him_.

Jane quickly averted her eyes and looked down at the Sketch-Pad in her lap in embarrassment. Had he caught her drawing? And if he did, what did he think of her? He probably thought she was some kind of crazy nut-job that drew people for fun. Well…she kind of _was_. But would he understand that she had meant it in the least creepy way possible?

Wondering whether he was still looking at her, Jane raised her head slowly in the exotic looking boy's direction. Then her head quickly shot back down.

Yep. He was still staring.

Jane was sure her face was as red as a tomato by now. Why was he still staring? She looked up again and once more, her eyes were instantly locked into the deep green eyes that stared intently back at her. Jane gulped and glanced back down at her lap.

This was getting too weird. She was still feeling his intense gaze on her. What on earth was going through his head? And why the hell was he still staring? She looked up once more and – surprise, surprise – he was _still_ staring. This time around though, she noticed the corner of his lips quirk upwards.

 _Great_. Not only did he think she was completely crazy, but he also seemed to find the entire situation amusing.

Hardy har har.

After what seemed like forever, Jane finally faced upwards and his attention was no longer on her. _Thank Goodness_.

She was about to turn back to the previous page to continue on her sketch of the platform, this time around, to start the sketch of three giggling girls that were jumping up and down in the middle of the platform for _some_ reason, when a voice interrupted her.

"Ooh, who's the hottie?"

Jane turned around to face her best friend, Kida, who had her head hung over Jane's shoulder, staring at the picture she drew of the exotic boy.

Kidagakash Nedakh, or simply _Kida_ as she was mostly called – she wasn't too fond of the nickname, though, and would've preferred to be called by her given name – was Jane's best friend since freshman year. Jane was pretty sure that if you checked the word 'Fearless' in the dictionary, Kida's picture would appear right beside it. She was that kind of person that would always speak her mind. She could say anything and everything that was the truth without stopping first to think of the consequences. She could tell you something so bluntly without noticing herself whether that was rude or not. And to top it all off, she had white hair. White hair that she had dyed when she was just in middle school. Jane often wondered how it was possible for a thirteen-year-old girl to be allowed to dye her hair, but knowing Kida, she most likely just talked her way into it.

Jane was more or less very different from Kida. For starters, she did not have dyed hair and she was pretty sure her father would never allow her to do so until he was sent to the grave. Not that she wanted to dye her hair anyway. She was perfectly fine with the chestnut brown locks she had. While she was quite outspoken, she didn't just say the first thing that popped up in her head. If she were being honest, she actually preferred writing her thoughts down – or better yet, capture them in a drawing if she could – than saying it out loud. Not that she had any problem with speeches, it was just not her preference.

"Where have you been?" Jane asked, ignoring Kida's question. "I thought you went to the loo?"

"I did," Kida replied and gave a low whistle. "Seriously though, who is this guy?"

Jane rolled her eyes. "You've been gone to the loo for almost an hour?"

Kida smiled and sat on the bench. "I helped some family that had trouble locating this place."

"So while I was here sitting under the sun, you were off somewhere acting all responsible?" Jane asked playfully.

"Like you missed me," Kida snorted and snatched the Sketch-Pad from Jane's lap. "And will you stop avoiding the question? Who the hell is this?" she held up the pad and pointed to Exotic Boy's face. "Your imaginary boyfriend?"

Jane stretched out her arms in attempt to snatch it back from her, only to have Kida quickly get off the bench. "He is real, Kida. Now give it back."

"Oh, so while I was being the perfectly responsible person I _am_ , you were here drooling over Mr. Hunk," she said, mocking Jane's earlier statement.

Trust Kida to be the only person in the world to say 'Mr. Hunk' out loud. Of course Jane had thought of similar names in her head, but she just couldn't bring herself to let them come out from her mouth. She was more proper than that. Kida, however, was absolutely not. Saying things out loud, no matter how weird they sounded, was her forte.

Jane frowned. "I wasn't drooling."

"Are you sure? Then what are all these little drops, then?"

Jane threw her brown messenger bag at the white-haired girl, which she easily dodged. "Kida! _Gross_!"

The girl just chuckled and scanned the area of the platform.

Jane groaned. "What exactly are you doing?"

"I'm searching for your husband-to-be. Isn't that obvious?"

Jane turned a deep shade of red. There was that blunt talk again. "I never said I wanted to–!"

"Shh," Kida cut her off. "That's him isn't it?" She was staring straight at Exotic Boy, who was now playing something on his phone.

"Yeah," Jane said quietly and blushed a little.

Kida smirked. "I take it back. I take it all back," she stared on. She wasn't the type to actually care about things like this. Really, in their school there were a lot of good-looking guys and she basically just wasn't interested. But this guy gave off a different air to her. He didn't have the classic 'Prince Charming' look like most of the guys in school did. He looked different. Good different. And Kida _liked_ different.

"Take all what back?" Jane asked, not taking her eyes off Exotic Boy either.

"Y'know, when we were sophomores I and was teasing you 'cause you liked that big-headed jerky senior, Clayton."

Jane scrunched up her nose. " _Ugh_. Don't remind me."

She was sixteen, she was innocent and she was definitely never going to make that mistake again. _Ever_.

"But seriously though. You couldn't stop talking about him, it was nauseating. And he's almost as big of a jerk as Gaston."

"Please, he's way worse. And I only thought of him because he wasn't bad looking and he was my dad's favorite student. Besides, John Smith was already taken."

Kida laughed and turned to face Jane. "So do you like Dreadlocks?"

Dreadlocks? Well, it definitely beat calling him Mr. Hunk or Hottie.

Jane shrugged, though the light pink on her cheeks was a dead give-away. "I really like his eyes."

Kida nodded seriously. "Then I approve of it. You have my permission."

Jane gave her a weird look. "Will you please stop making it seem like we're getting married?"

"You never know," Kida smirked.

The brunette just stared at her in disbelief. "I don't even know his name!"

"Well, that can be arranged," she had that mischievous glint in her eyes. _Oh no_.

"Kida…what are you–"

Jane didn't get to finish because at that moment, Kida had a wide grin on her face and her right arm shot up in the air as she waved it enthusiastically.

"Hey _Hotstuff_!" she yelled. People in the platform gave her weird looks, but she didn't care. Instead, she continued waving, and grinned like a maniac as she stared directly at Exotic Boy.

Exotic Boy was obviously uncomfortable. It was clearly written on his face. But he eventually walked towards them anyway. Most likely just so Kida could stop making a fool out of herself.

Jane, already really ashamed, stared directly at her lap refusing to look up at the _really_ good looking guy with dreadlocks.

"Hi," Kida said brightly, grinning at him. He gave her a small nod in return. "My name is Kidagakash and I'm guessing you're a new student."

Exotic Boy nodded firmly. "I'm a transfer student from Africa."

Jane immediately looked up and stared into those wonderful eyes. That voice. That _voice_. It was so deep and so masculine and so… _exotic_. That was easily her favorite word in the English Language now.

Exotic Boy noticed her stare and smiled at her. Before Jane could panic and look down again, he quickly said. "Hi, I'm Tarzan."

"Tarzan," Jane repeated dreamily. Such a nice name.

Tarzan furrowed his eye-brows. "Your name's Tarzan too?"

Jane blinked. "Huh? Oh, no. Um…I'm Jane."

He smiled. "That's a pretty name."

She blushed. "Thank you."

They continued to stare at each other for what seemed like forever. Kida did not even try to stifle her groan. She had to do _everything_.

"So, Tarzan."

"Hmm?" the guy simply hummed to show that he was listening, not even bothering to tear his gaze away from Jane.

Kida was a bit annoyed, but he was definitely way better than Clayton as far as she could tell, so she let it slide. "Do you appreciate art?"

He shrugged, still staring intently at Jane. "I'm not very good at it, but I do admire the work. Why?"

Jane frowned a bit and turned to face her friend, stopping the sickly sweet stare she and Tarzan were having. "Yeah. Why did you ask, Kida?" Where exactly was her best friend going with this?

"Well," Kida started with a fake innocent smile on her face. "It just so happens that Pretty Name here, is very talented in that area."

Tarzan gave Jane an amused look. "Really?"

Jane suddenly felt nervous again. "Um…I guess I can draw a thing or two."

Kida rolled her eyes. "Please, she's _amazing_. Probably the best there is."

Jane frowned. Wherever her friend was getting at, Jane was certain she would not like it. "Don't you think you're exaggerating a bit?"

"I most certainly am not," Kida continued with that innocent expression. "Why don't you see for yourself, Tarzan? So you'd know for yourself how talented she is."

So _that's_ where she was getting at. Yep. Jane was right. She didn't like it. _Not one bit_.

"I don't think that's a very good idea."

"I would love to see the art work."

It took a few seconds for both Jane and Tarzan to fully comprehend what the other had said.

While Jane was completely surprised that Tarzan wanted to view her drawings – because they weren't anything special, really – Tarzan, on the other hand, looked utterly confused.

"You don't want me to see your drawings?" he asked, looking at her with those annoyingly pretty eyes. Ugh. Those eyes would be the death of her.

"No, no, it's not that…it's just…" she trailed off when she saw Kida smirking at her behind him.

Oh, she was so going to get back at her so-called best friend.

"It's okay if you don't want me to see them," Tarzan continued. "I wouldn't want to pry."

Jane sighed. "No it's okay, you're not prying. It's just that my drawings aren't as good as Kida is making them out to be."

Tarzan grinned. "I'll be the judge of that."

Jane smiled dreamily at him, and they continued to stare at each other in that sickly manner, when Kida suddenly appeared between them.

"Great! Here's Jane's Sketch-Pad," and she handed it to Tarzan, before disappearing behind him again. This time though, she gave Jane two-thumbs up as if Tarzan looking at her drawings was going to lead to him proposing to Jane or something.

The brunette just rolled her eyes. She really wasn't comfortable with letting other people view her Sketch-Pads as they were very special to her. The only ones in the world that could look at her personal drawings were Kida and her father…and apparently, Tarzan too. But she guessed she could make an exception for him. After all, if they did end up getting married, it would be nice to know that she had been comfortable with her future husband since Day One.

Okay…maybe she was getting a bit ahead of herself. But it was a nice thought. A _very_ nice thought.

She watched Tarzan with her smile on her face as his eyes grazed over the pad, looking at each drawing with increased interest. There was even a point where he gave a low chuckle.

Jane's smile widened. Even his chuckle sounded nice. She was so going to have a quick glance at her pad later to find the drawing that actually made him laugh. Then she would cherish it forever.

Maybe she would even get it framed, and hang it on the wall in her room. So that she would be reminded every day of the first drawing that made Tarzan laugh. She said 'first' because there would definitely be many more drawings of hers that would amuse him. She would make sure of it.

Then she noticed something different. His face no longer looked amused, nor did it have that interested look on it. Instead, it was sort of straight as he looked at the paper with intensity.

Jane frowned. _What drawing is he looking at?_

She moved a bit closer to catch a quick glance of the picture when she froze.

The picture Tarzan was staring at was the one she drew of him.

He continued to look at the paper with a fixed gaze, while Jane looked absolutely mortified. She glanced at the spot behind Tarzan, only to find her best friend texting someone on her phone.

This must have been her plan all along. So that Tarzan could see the creepy drawing she drew of him.

But why would Kida humiliate her like this? She had already given her approval to be with him, so why was she trying to wreck their sort-of-relationship now?

Jane was thinking about all this when she suddenly felt an intense gaze on her. She feebly looked up to face Tarzan, who probably hated her now. She couldn't blame him, and she kinda had it coming. What with her drawing him without his approval or knowledge and all. "Look, I'm really sorr–" Her apology was cut off and she was instantly relieved. What was she going to say, anyway? 'Sorry for being a total creep'? That definitely would've been the lamest apology in the history of lame apologies.

"Is this really what I look like?"

Huh…?

He had just seen a sketch of himself he obviously didn't pose for, and _that_ was what he was thinking of?

"W-what…do you… _huh_?" she asked, too confused to bring actual words from her mouth.

His gaze fell back to the pad. "The drawings are pretty cool, and you're actually really talented. But…I just look so… _serious_."

After fully understanding what he had just said, she blushed then laughed.

Blushed because, _duh_ , he likes her drawings! And he thinks she's talented. _Really_ talented. She could just die of happiness.

She laughed because, well…the face he was currently making was pretty laughable. He was glaring at her pad because he felt he looked too serious?

Tarzan looked up from the pad to face Jane with a puzzled look, as if trying to understand what was so funny.

Jane smiled as she forced her laughter to stop. "The expression you gave wasn't seriousness per se," she stood beside him and pointed to the picture. "You just looked so…focused, I guess. I did my best to read your emotions, but it's obviously not entirely accurate since it was from my point of view and I can't really tell exactly how you're feeling just by looking at you. And the fact that you're a stranger doesn't help much."

"Oh," was all he said. Then he turned to look at her. "I'm a stranger to you?"

Jane felt her face heating up, _again_. She really needed to stop blushing around this guy. "I-I mean…when I was drawing I didn't even know your name…a-and I still d-don't know much about you...not that I don't want to...I do…I wouldn't mind if we hang out some time i-in school or something…"

 _Great_. She was stammering. Just when things were going alright, she just had to mess it up. Classic Jane.

Instead of awkwardly shuffling away or giving her a weird look like Jane had initially thought, he smiled at her. Actually _smiled_ at her.

"I would love to hang out some time," he told her.

Yep, it's official.

She was definitely going to marry this guy. She already had Kida's approval, all she needed was for her dad to like him. Which really shouldn't be all that hard.

She smiled back at him and only muttered a weak "Kay…"

Tarzan looked like he was about to say something, but was suddenly interrupted by a loud ringing sound.

"Looks like it's time to board the train," Kida announced, as she appeared beside them.

"Yeah," Jane agreed, and she turned to face Tarzan. "You wouldn't mind sharing a compartment with us, would you?"

"I would love to."

* * *

Woody Sheriff was not happy.

This had to be the worst day ever.

It was just terrible.

Absolutely and utterly _terrible_.

He growled softly as he sat in a compartment on the train, glaring at the two boys sitting opposite him.

This was stupid.

Woody was supposed to be happy. This was supposed to be the start of a wonderful year at WDA.

Then _he_ had to come into the picture.

 **xXx**

 _Earlier that day..._

A certain brown-haired teenage boy stood in a corner of Platform Nine. His parents had just dropped him off a few minutes ago and he was currently waiting for his best friend to show up. He stood excitedly in the Platform, happily scanning his surroundings for any sight of his friend or his family. This year was going to be a very good year. He had woken up that morning actually excited for school. He was going to be a sophomore this coming year, and his best friend was a freshman, just starting high school.

That was why he was so excited. He was happy to have his best friend to join him at school again. It wasn't so easy to have someone very close to you in a different grade, but they had survived.

He had barely survived the previous year though.

"Woody!"

The brown-haired boy spun around at the sound of his name. "Andy!" he greeted, elated to finally see the person he had been waiting for all morning.

The younger boy, known as Andy, headed straight for Woody, immediately tackling him and they both fell onto the ground. The two boys continued to wrestle each other, rolling on the floor, as some sort of greeting.

Molly, Andy's ten-year old little sister, rolled her eyes from where she stood, holding her mother's hand in one hand, and her Barbie doll in the other. "Mo-om," she called out. "They're doing that weird rolling thing again."

The mother chuckled. "Boys, you're in public. And get up now, before you get yourselves dirty."

Molly wrinkled her nose. "It's a little too late for that."

The two boys got up and started dusting themselves, not looking the least bit embarrassed or anything.

"Good morning, Mrs. Davis," Woody greeted Andy's mother.

"Nice to see you again, Woody," Mrs. Davis smiled warmly. "How are your parents doing?"

"Oh, they're fine. You just missed them." Then he turned to the girl beside Mrs. Davis. "Hey Molly," Woody grinned at her. "Miss me?"

The young girl scoffed. "You wish."

Andy laughed. "Don't mind her, she missed you a whole lot," he said as he smirked at his sister. "She even got this cowboy doll that looks a bit like you and has been making her Barbie doll make out with it since you left."

A faint tinge of pink appeared on the girl's cheeks. "I only did that 'cause mom refused to buy me that Ken doll I wanted. I definitely didn't miss you."

The mother smiled at her daughter's embarrassed face. "Now, now Molly. You know I didn't get you that doll because it came with that ridiculously large dollhouse, and was simply a waste of money."

"Hey," Woody said softly as he crouched down in front of Molly. "If it makes you feel better, I missed you a lot too. Such a shame we wouldn't be able to go to high school together, though."

Her face was outright red now. "I…I said I didn't miss you!" She let go of her mother's hand and stormed off.

"Molly!" their mother called. "I'll be right back, boys. Stay put." Then she hurried after her daughter.

Andy cackled with laughter. "She's so crushing on you!"

Woody scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Yeah…" It wasn't a secret that Molly may have developed a bit of a crush on him over the past few years. But he was a sophomore in high school, and she was just entering the fifth-grade. The phrase 'Way too old for her' was an understatement. But teasing her about it was also a bit funny too. Especially since she was always embarrassed around him, and tried to hide it by claiming she hated him. So adorable.

"But dude, you've got to stop teasing her like that," Andy continued. "She already hates Bo as it is."

Bo-Anne, or simply Bo as her friends called her, was a pretty blonde that Woody was completely smitten with. It also helped that she kind of had a thing for him too. What didn't help though, was that Molly didn't seem to like her very much.

"Nah, she'll get over it," Woody waved off the thought. "It's just a little crush, after all."

"I guess you're right," Andy agreed. "But she is my sister. So no hurting her or stuff like that."

Woody raised an eye-brow. "Dude, she's five years younger than me. Wouldn't dream of it."

Andy grinned. "Good. But you should've seen that cowboy doll, though. I swear it looks exactly like you."

Woody just laughed. "Okay, you'll have to show me some time," then he put on a more serious face. "But are you sure you're ready for a Boarding School?"

Andy shrugged. "I guess mom and Molly would miss me a bit. But I've got nothing to worry about," he grinned up at Woody. "After all, I've got two amazing friends to get me through it."

Woody frowned. "Two?" What did he mean _two_? Was he also referring to Bo? Sure, they were all pretty close and had lived in the same neighborhood since they were little, but they weren't that close. And he couldn't possibly be talking about his other friends. Woody and Andy also had some other friends they used to hang out with. Four to be exact. And all four of them were off in college at Elias University, so he definitely couldn't be referring to them either.

Then…if it wasn't any of them…who exactly was this other person?

Andy laughed at Woody's confused expression. "Oh, don't think too much of him, Woody. You don't know him yet." Then he looked around the Platform and started scanning the area. "But you will soon, he's a sophomore just like you."

What the…?

Woody blinked. "If I don't know him, how is he such an 'amazing friend'?" Woody asked, using air-quotes. That was true. Woody knew all of Andy's friends. So who exactly was this person that Woody didn't know yet and was apparently in the same grade as he was?

"We met at camp," Andy answered quickly, not stopping his search of this unknown 'amazing friend' person.

"Camp? What camp?" Woody asked.

"Oh," Andy stopped to look at his very confused best friend. "Didn't I tell you about camp?"

"No…" Woody answered quietly. "This is the first I'm hearing of it."

"Sorry," Andy said sheepishly. "You were at Texas with your family for most of the summer, I guess I'd just forgotten. I went to summer camp. Space camp."

Space camp? Was that even a thing?

Woody stared blankly, his confused state still evident on his face. "What the hell is that?"

Andy was about to answer when he saw someone behind Woody. Then his face split into a wide grin. "Buzz!" and he ran off.

Woody, just turned around, still confused as hell. "Buzz? What the heck is a Buzz?"

Then he saw it.

Andy and some guy were rolling around on the floor, laughing and punching each other.

Woody growled. That was _their_ way of greeting each other. They weren't supposed to that with anybody else but with themselves.

Woody walked over to them, crossed his arms and cleared his throat – in a very loud manner, by the way. They both stood up and Woody saw a clear view of this Buzz person. The guy was fairly short, a bit shorter than Andy – who wasn't really tall, either – so Woody was clearly taller than the both of them. And he his hair was…purple? What normal person had purple hair? Well, it was to be expected considering his name was _Buzz_ , but still.

The guy saw Woody glaring at him and was a bit taken aback. When Woody refused to avert his eyes, he too glared. And it soon became some sort of glaring war, each of them practically throwing daggers at each other with their eyes.

Andy finally finished dusting himself. Maybe his mom was right. Maybe he and his friends should find a new way of greeting each other. Rolling on the floor was a bit dirty, after all. He then noticed that it was strangely quiet and turned to look at his two best friends only to find them…glaring at each other?

Wait, what? Why were they scowling like that?

"Okay…" he said slowly as he glanced at both his friends. "Let me introduce you two. Woody meet Buzz, my best friend at camp. And Buzz, this is Woody, he's been my best friend and neighbor since we were little."

The two boys continued to size each other up with their eyes. Then they both held out their hands, and gave each other a firm handshake.

"Hello Buzz," Woody said, his voice dripping with venom. "As Andy already told you, I'm the _first_ best friend." At his own statement, Woody slightly cringed. _Great_. Now he was starting to sound like some sort of possessive and jealous girlfriend.

"Pleasure to meet you Woody," Buzz told him, though he made it pretty obvious this meeting was anything but pleasurable. "And as you may have already figured it out, I'm the _cool_ best friend."

Huh. Good to know that Woody was not the only one sounding like a crazy girlfriend.

Andy just stared at each of his friends. Why were they acting so weird? Choosing to ignore it, he continued to tell Woody of his summer camp adventure. "Buzz and I met in this cool arcade. Some annoying bully, Sid Phillips, with a large ego kept bragging of how great he was at videogames."

"Yeah," Buzz put in. "This guy was messing with Andy, and I challenged him to a few games and put the bully back in his place."

"Uh-huh," Andy nodded excitedly. "Buzz practically dominated the place! It might have to do with the fact that his dad owns a videogame company, but Buzz is actually really good! He taught me a few tricks too."

Buzz beamed at the praise he was getting. "Yeah, I'm pretty awesome. That's even how I got my nickname, 'cause of the buzzing sound the machine makes when I win."

"So…your name isn't actually Buzz?" Woody asked.

"Of course not. Why would you think that?"

"Well…judging by your _purple_ hair, I just thought your parents were hippies or something."

Andy frowned. Well, that was rude.

"At least now you know Buzz is just a really cool nickname," Buzz said as he crossed is arms. "How did you get your nickname, _Woody_?"

Woody narrowed his eyes into slits. "That's my actual name."

"Oh? And _I'm_ the one with the hippie parents?"

"At least I have a natural hair color."

" _Stop it_. The both of you," Andy snapped. "Buzz, it wasn't cool when Woody made the hippie comment, it's not gonna be cool when you say it either. And Woody, Buzz only has purple hair because some guys at camp dared him to dye it this way, and he stupidly agreed to it."

"Hey," Buzz cut in. "You've gotta admit, I look cool with purple hair," he grinned, running his hand through his locks.

Andy gave him a blank look. "Nobody looks good with purple hair. If anything, you look ridiculous."

"Mal looked cool with purple hair," Buzz muttered.

"Please don't tell me you dorks are talking about that _Descendants_ movie."

The three teens turned to face Molly as she approached them.

"It was a pretty good movie," Buzz told her.

She just rolled her eyes, "I'd rather watch Ant-Man any day."

"Says the girl who still plays with dolls," Woody teased.

She glared at him, but a slight blush was apparent on her cheeks. "I'm a ten-year old girl, give me a break."

Andy laughed, then furrowed his eye-brows. "Where's mom?"

"She went to a café to get a drink," then she turned to Buzz. "Aren't you gonna say hi to me?"

"You called me a dork for liking a quality movie," he smirked at her. "You don't deserve a greeting."

"Wait," Woody asked, glancing at the both of them. "You two know each other?"

"Yeah," Andy told him. "Buzz and his family came over to visit a bit after camp."

Buzz…and his family?

They knew Andy and _his_ family?!

"Molly!" the mother called, rushing towards them. "I told you to wait outside the café."

Molly just shrugged. "I was bored."

The woman smiled and shook her head, before turning to face Buzz. "Oh, hello Ben. When did you get here?"

 _Ben?_ Woody thought. So that's why he liked the _Descendants_ movie so much.

"I just got here a few minutes ago," Buzz told her. "My parents say hi."

"It's good to see you again," Mrs. Davis continued, as she turned to the two cups in her hand. "I didn't know you'll meet them here though, else I would've gotten one for you too."

"It's okay, ma'am," he reassured her. "I don't like coffee."

Woody grinned to himself. Both he and Andy loved coffee. At least that was one thing _Buzz_ couldn't steal from them.

"Actually mom," Andy started. "There's this drink that Buzz and I used to take at camp. Is it okay if we take those?"

"That's fine with me," Mrs. Davis said as she handed Woody one of the cups.

Woody stared at the coffee in his hands. Then he watched as Buzz handed Andy and Molly two bottles with colorful liquid in them.

He growled as his grip on the paper cup tightened.

 _That little piece of–_

Then all of a sudden, the cup broke and the hot liquid poured on him.

 **xXx**

Andy's mother had gotten a lot of napkins and tried her best. But in the end, there was still a nasty blob of coffee stain on his shirt.

Buzz had even made a joke, saying that it wasn't all that bad since his T-shirt was also brown, and that there was nothing to worry about.

Nothing to worry about? Pfft.

Woody would like to see him walking about with a conspicuous stain all over him. At least Andy – being the good friend he was – had lent him his jean jacket. It didn't do much to cover the stain but it helped.

Woody snorted as he continued to look at the boys sitting opposite him, completely oblivious to the intense stare he was giving them.

Andy and Buzz.

Buzz was a stupid name, anyway. Nickname or no.

Woody wasn't exactly sure why he despised him so much. But if this purple-haired weirdo thought he could replace Woody in Andy's life…well…

 _He's got another thing coming._

* * *

Jasmine Agrabah frowned as the song, _Welcome To New York_ , blasted through her earbuds. _Haha_ , she thought dryly. _Hilarious_. She brought out her sleek Samsung phone from her teal Gucci purse and scrolled through the songs on her playlist. She eventually decided on _Can't Stop the Feeling_ by Justin Timberlake. She really wasn't in the mood for dancing, but liked listening to his voice. And she had already played _Mirrors_ to death, anyway.

The dark-skinned Arabian teen sighed as she looked out the window of the limousine, staring blankly at the buildings as they drove through the streets of the well-known Disney Village. Now, Disney Village was as normal as a normal town could get. It was the Private School in it that made it much more special.

 _Walt Disney Academy_.

 _Ugh_. If she heard that name one more time she was going to puke. Her father had been talking about it non-stop since the middle of Summer Vacation, when he found out that she had been accepted for the Exchange Program.

Jasmine honestly couldn't get what the big deal was. It was just a school. With the same teachers, the same classes and the same hormone crazed teenagers. The same as every other high school on the Planet.

Yeah, it was a Private Boarding School for the Rich. But Jasmine didn't even understand how that was possibly better. If anything, it was worse. They wore stuffy and stupid uniforms, had stuck-up teachers that probably thought they were above it all, and had a lot of restrictions.

Jasmine had never been to a Public School herself, but from what she saw in the movies, they could wear whatever they wanted, most of the teachers couldn't care less of what the students did, and the classmates never talked in snooty stupid voices as they fought over whose father was wealthier. If anything, Jasmine would rather go to a typical Public school than WDA. Even if it meant that she would have to burst into random musical numbers for no apparent reason just like the movies portrayed, but she would gladly do so without any complaints.

That's if this WDA was anything like her old Private School, which Jasmine was certain it was.

Her old school in Middle-Eastern Asia was, summed up in one word, horrible. Sure it was good and was well-known and likes and whatnot – though not nearly as popular as WDA – but it was still a Private School. And all Private Schools were the same: Downright stupid. With their stupid uniforms, and stupid know-it-all teachers, and the stupid Barbie-look-alikes that all had the same stupid in-season handbags – okay she'll admit, she owns a lot of those handbags too. But she never really got how still having last year's Prada Purse was something to be _ashamed_ of – and worst of all, the stupid snooty disgusting guys that all thought they could impress her by buying her lame and expensive things they bought with their _daddy's_ money–

Jasmine groaned out loud as _Don't Let Me Down_ by Daya started playing. Honestly, what was up with shuffle today? She couldn't care less whether WDA was going to let her down or not. Or maybe she was just over-analyzing it? After all, Daya hadn't actually talked about a school throughout the entire song. School was definitely the last thing on The Chainsmokers minds when they wrote the lyrics, anyway.

Before she could decide whether to listen to the song or not, she felt someone touch her shoulder. She turned around to face her father who gave her a concerned look as if to ask 'Are you alright?'

Jasmine just smiled at him. He returned it and turned back to reading the folder he had in his hands. There was really no reason for her dad to be concerned, she was perfectly fine. She was simply hating all of the songs she had on her phone, when she had enjoyed listening to them just the day before.

Typical teenage girl problem.

Eventually deciding on changing the song to _Cheap Thrills_ , mainly because it didn't relate to her in any way, plus the video was pretty cool, she went back to watching the streets. The only thing Jasmine liked about WDA, was the town. Which now that she thought about it, didn't really have anything to do with the school but whatever.

Disney Village was a nice town, as far as she could tell. It was so peaceful and everyone looked really friendly with each other. Her father had told her that they would be living in Palace Park, a classy part of Disney Village that was specifically for the wealthy. Jasmine didn't care though. She was definitely going to be visiting Disney Village as often as she could. She smiled. At least she had something to look forward to.

Then the vehicle came to a halt. Jasmine furrowed her eye-brows. WDA was nowhere to be seen. Why were they stopping? She removed the ear-buds from her ear and paused her song before turning and giving her father a puzzled look.

He understood and smiled nervously. "Well, your new Principal said you didn't need to be in School until later during the day, so I just thought we could go a little site-seeing for a while."

Jasmine turned back and looked out the window. It was a building with the words _Genie's Lamp_ on the front. She frowned as she tried to understand what they were doing here when it hit her.

She turned back and smirked at her dad. "You came here to eat, didn't you?"

Her father looked embarrassed. "This is what was recommended for good traditional food."

"It's okay, Daddy," Jasmine laughed at her father's sheepish expression. "I was in the mood for something spicy, anyway."

Her father grinned at her as they both got out of the limo. Jasmine stood close to door of the building as her father spoke to their chauffeur, Razoul, about something.

When her father reached her side, he smiled. "The Maldonia's are coming to meet us here."

Jasmine smiled back as they entered the restaurant, then her smile grew even wider. The inside looked like what probably the inside of a Genie's Lamp would look like. It was colorful and each of the tables had different colors of table-spread on them. There were various golden chain curtains that hung from the ceiling, and the door to another side of the room was shaped like the face of some kind of wild animal that had its mouth wide open. The floor was also carpeted and was the colors blue, purple and gold.

All in all, it kind of looked like Jasmine was no longer in Fantasia and had instead, gone back to her home country. She liked that. She liked that very much.

She was making a mental note of trying to come here as often as she could when she started school when a man in a blue Arabian attire approached them.

"Hiya!" he beamed at them. "My name is Genie, and welcome to my lamp!" he said in a cheerful voice.

 _Hiya? Talk about over-enthusiasm._ Jasmine thought to herself as the man directed them to a booth close to the window.

"I'm here to grant three wishes," he continued. "Name it, and it shall be yours."

Jasmine raised an eye-brow. "Three wishes?" she asked, dubiously.

"Yeah you know, like the three-course meals."

She stared.

"Appetizer, main meal and dessert?" he asked, trying to get her to understand the reference.

She still said nothing.

Genie sighed. "It's a bit too much, isn't it?"

Jasmine smiled. "It's not that bad, you're just trying too hard. This place on its own already looks amazing, there's really no need for anything else."

He laughed. "I guess you're right. That's what my employees say, anyway." He composed himself and held up a pad and pen in his hands. "So, will you have appetizers or just dive into the main course?"

"I'll take the salty bread sticks," her father spoke up.

Jasmine turned to him, and it was then that she realized that he hadn't even been listening to the small conversation she and Genie were having. He was instead, reading the Menu intently. She smiled and glanced at her Menu before she frowned. "We're having appetizers?"

There was that sheepish look again. "I don't want us to start eating before the Maldonia's get here, so…"

Jasmine laughed. "It's okay. I'll have the same and water, please."

Genie nodded and wrote that down. "Coming right up." Then he was gone.

Jasmine's father turned to face her. "So, are you excited to see Naveen and his parents, again?"

"I wouldn't say excited. But I am kind of happy I don't have to go to a new school alone," Jasmine told him.

The Maldonia's were close friends with her father and they had worked together on a couple of projects. Jasmine's father was the owner of the _Agrabah Films Industry_ , while the Maldonia's owned a multi-media Empire, so them being Partners wasn't really a surprise.

The Maldonia's had a son, Naveen, who was her age. He had gone to her previous school with her, and they were both changing schools to WDA. Fate? No, not really. Jasmine was only changing schools because of the Exchange Program, while Naveen's parents had practically pulled him out of the school because they felt it didn't give him much discipline and gave him too much freedom.

Jasmine had only rolled her eyes when Naveen told her the story. His parents' idea of discipline was taking him out of a Private school and putting him into _another_ Private school. Real smart. At least WDA was a Boarding School – not a Day school like the previous one – that had curfews and Jasmine doubted he would be allowed to throw un-chaperoned parties on the school premises. Okay. That probably wasn't a totally dumb move on his parents' part.

Now, the relationship she had with Naveen was a really close one, but she didn't really consider him her best friend or anything. He was still an idiotic typical rich-kid teenage boy that had an unhealthy obsession with Jazz music. Note that his nickname for her was also Jazz. _Clever_.

At least Jasmine was happy with the fact that their parents hadn't sealed some kind of engagement for them when they became partners. That would've been too weird. She had known him since she was a kid and practically saw him as a younger brother – just ignore the fact that he's a couple of months older than her. He definitely didn't act like it anyway.

There was also the fact that Jasmine was literally the only girl in the world he didn't flirt with – _thank_ _Allah_ – so she knew the feelings she had for him were mutual. What bothered her though, was that even though they didn't stamp anything or make it official, she knew both their parents wanted them to eventually get hitched. Apparently, they wanted to be like one of those normal parents and only hoped that she and Naveen would eventually fall in love and decide to get together on their own free will.

Um, _eww_.

What made it worse was that they seemed to think she and Naveen actually had a thing for each other. She always noticed the not-so-discreet smirks they sent their way whenever she and Naveen joked and laughed with each other, like they were watching the next Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in the making.

Again, _eww_!

Not the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie part. Those two were adorable. It was the fact that their parents actually thought that there was a possibility of her and Naveen happening.

Well…they were in for a _major_ disappointment.

"Here are your bread sticks. I recommend you take the Dragon Fire sauce with that. Might sound weird, but they actually go pretty well together."

Jasmine looked up to face the owner of the voice. It was a teenage guy that looked her age. And he wasn't bad looking either. Then she raised her eye-brows.

Though what caught her eye about him wasn't his sort of good looks – okay, he was actually pretty cute, but she wasn't going to admit that. She wasn't even surprised by the fact that he was Arabian, because considering the décor of the place, it was pretty obvious that there were at least one or two Arabian workers here.

No. What made her raise her eye-brows was that he had a monkey sitting on his right shoulder.

That's right. _A monkey_.

Was that considered normal around here?

Choosing to ignore the primate, Jasmine smirked at the boy instead. "You're suggesting I eat something with the words _Dragon Fire_ in it?"

He smirked back. "Why? Can't handle something a little spicy? 'Cause if you can't, I'll give you a less fun one like…Dragon Ice or something."

Jasmine laughed. " _Dragon Ice_?"

"What? It could happen?" the guy joked. "If fire came out of the front, haven't you wondered what would come out from behind?"

Jasmine scrunched up her nose in disgust. "Eww…" then for some reason, she smiled. "I've actually never thought of that."

"I would rather have the Red Eyes sauce," Jasmine's father said, reading over his Menu carefully.

Jasmine smiled at him. "You don't want Dragon Fire instead?"

"I want something spicy, not something deadly hot."

The boy laughed. "So, Red Eyes sauce for two?" he faced Jasmine. "Or do you think you're up for something hotter like Dragon Fire?"

Jasmine put up her best determined look. " _Bring it_."

She smiled and watched the boy go as he went to get their orders. Maybe moving here wasn't such a bad thing, after all.

"Is it just me, or did that kid have a monkey on his shoulder?" Jasmine's father asked.

Jasmine laughed.

 _Yep_ , she thought. _Not a bad thing at all_.

* * *

"Mom!" Eilonwy cried the minute she got downstairs.

"Hello Darling," the mother called back, and proceeded to hug her. Then the woman smiled at the boy behind her daughter. "And hello Taran. How was Violin lesson?"

"Um…well, we kinda–"

"It was fine, mom," Eilonwy interrupted, glaring at the redhead boy in the process.

He was unfazed by it, however. "We quit," he told the woman bluntly.

Eilonwy groaned. "What part of a glare don't you understand?"

Mrs. Llyr just smiled at her daughter, looking rather amused. "Quit? But why? I thought you liked the Violin."

"I do, mom. I just don't like…playing it," she smiled nervously.

The woman laughed. "Well, it was to be expected. Considering you called me a million times just to tell me how badly your neck felt."

"Well, it was rather painful," Eilonwy told her as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Those neck-massagers you hired weren't any good, either. My neck _still_ hurts."

"I honestly don't know why an instrument as trivial as the violin needs so much work," Taran complained. "It's the side of your jaw that should be on the chin-rest, not your chin. If that's the case, why didn't they go ahead and name it the side-of-your-jaw-rest, instead? At least, that would've made it much less confusing."

"Yeah," Eilonwy agreed. "And what's with the whole 'your fingers must be in the shape of a claw' thing? How does the shape of my fingers have anything to do with the music I'm making?"

"I wouldn't call what you were doing _music_ ," Taran muttered.

Eilonwy crossed her arms and turned to face him. "Like you were any better? Fflewddur nearly made me go deaf with the 'B-clef not B-sharp!' yelling. Honestly, how hard is that to understand? There really isn't much similarity between the two."

"Nyeh-nyeh-nyeh-nyeh-nyeh," Taran mocked.

"You son of a–" Eilonwy cut off when she heard her mother clear her throat. "…Pig farmer."

"Nice save," the woman smirked.

Taran, however, still looked offended. "My dad's not a pig-farmer."

"Yeah, yeah, he rears pigs and later brutally kills them to make bacon," Eilonwy waved him off. "Same difference."

"He doesn't brutally kill them!"

"You know, I don't get your methods. You rear pigs, take care of them, treat them like they have a home. And then, all of a sudden, you kill a couple to make as packaged meat for the Industry."

"At least we don't mistreat them like some others do. And we don't take the younger ones, only the older ones that have pretty much lived their lives."

"Okay, okay," Eilonwy raised up her arms. "No need to get defensive."

"I wasn't defensive. I was simply justifying myself."

"Okay Eilonwy, stop the teasing," their Music Instructor spoke up, coming out from the kitchen. "And you have got to admit, _Hen Wen_ sells the best pork and bacon." Then he held up the numerous meat and snacks in his arms, as if to prove his point.

"Don't tell me you were poking your head into the fridge, _again_ ," Eilonwy's mother rolled her eyes.

"Don't you judge me," Fflewddur defended himself, his mouth full with bacon. "I've been stuck upstairs for hours with these tone-deaf monsters."

Taran and Eilonwy gave him their best innocent smiles.

He scoffed and went to sit on a sofa.

"No, no," Eilonwy's mom told him. "My sofa is not going to be smelling of meat. Go eat in the kitchen."

The instructor sighed heavily, and went back to where he came from.

Then the woman laughed. "Since you two are as bad at Violin as Fflewddur is making you out to be, what musical instruments do you want to try next?"

"Wait…we're still gonna take lessons?" Taran asked, a sausage he had stolen from his Instructor earlier, half-way to his mouth.

Eilonwy ignored him and smiled at her mother. "I decided to just stick with piano. It's much easier, anyway."

"Why are we still taking classes?" Taran continued whining. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm tone deaf for _all_ instruments, not just the violin."

"Taran, stop complaining and pick an instrument," Mrs. Llyr told him.

"Fine…drums," he answered, finally shoving the sausage into his mouth.

Mrs. Llyr frowned and crossed her arms.

"Okay, okay…since nothing loud and _remotely fun_ is out of the question…how about the harp?"

"You wanna learn how to play harp?" Eilonwy asked, furrowing he eyebrows.

Taran shrugged. "Seems easy enough. At least there's no neck I have to 'press harder' onto."

"True," Eilonwy agreed. "The harp is the best instrument for your soft and delicate hands," she teased.

Taran simply glared, then turned to the direction of the kitchen. "I need more sausages," he muttered before he left.

Mother and daughter laughed.

"So, how was your trip," Eilonwy asked, as she and her mom went to sit on one of the couches.

Mrs. Llyr was the proud owner of the wide chain of five-star hotels, _Prydain_ , that Eilonwy's grandmother had founded, and Eilonwy would gladly take over when she was of age. Because of her work, Mrs. Llyr was always going on trips, planning Conventions in different towns and other boring details.

For the past three days, Mrs. Llyr had travelled to a neighboring town for a brand new opening for another branch of the hotel.

"It was quite boring, really," her mother told her. "Same old, same old."

Eilonwy laughed. "So, you're staying here for a while, right?"

The woman gave her a sad smile. "I can't honey. I have to go visit your Aunt Leah, to discuss the dress code for the gathering I'm planning."

"You're leaving? _Again_?" Eilonwy sighed. "But you just got back."

"I know, sweetie," her mother pat her on the arm. "But at least you'll be off to school, so you won't even notice I'm gone. And I promise to be back sooner than you know it."

"It's okay," Eilonwy nudged her arm away and got up. "Tell Aunt Leah and Uncle Stefan I say hi."

"Eilonwy," Mrs. Llyr started, then sighed. "Greet Aurora for me, okay?"

"Kay."

"And tell her to take good care of you – you know what, I'm just going to give her call–"

"Mom," Eilonwy cut her off. "I'll be fine, okay? There's no point in going to a Boarding School if you're just gonna let my cousin babysit me the whole time."

"I know, I know. I just want to make sure you'll be alright. Since you'll be alone in school, with nothing much of an adult supervision."

"What does it matter? Besides dad being home sometimes, I'm basically looking after myself."

Mrs. Llyr sighed and gave her the sad look she always gave in these moments. The sad look that practically said 'Sorry for caring more about my precious hotel than my own daughter'. Eilonwy knew it wasn't true, though. She kept reminding herself of how un-true it was. But that didn't make the situation any better. It never did.

"Where's your father?" her mother finally asked.

"He said something about paperwork and school. I'm not really sure."

While Eilonwy's mother was a highly successful business woman, Eilonwy's dad took the lesser class role and was instead, a teacher at _Grimm Schools_. People often wondered – especially Eilonwy herself – how both her parents had managed to be on totally different social levels, but still remained together.

How they had even gotten together was beyond them. Eilonwy was certain that her maternal grandma was not too fond of the marriage, as she didn't even bother to hide her disdain for him whenever they went to visit.

"Okay, then," her mother replied. "Go up to your room and take your suitcases outside. You and Taran will be leaving soon."

"Kay," she said once more and left.

Once she entered her room, she headed straight for her bed and laid on her back.

Her mom was leaving.

Her mom was leaving _again_. When she had barely just come back, she was going to get up and leave.

Leave her all alone.

 _By herself_.

Sure, she had her dad, and she really loved spending time with him. But that didn't mean she didn't want her mother. There were just some things a teenage girl couldn't talk to their dad about, and simply just needed their mom to be there for them. But she just wasn't there.

She never was.

That was why Eilonwy had tried so hard to seek attention from her schoolmates. The attention her mother refused to give her.

Then she thought back to what Taran had said earlier in the Practice room.

 _You're scared._

Scared? Was she really? She definitely didn't need to be popular to be happy.

She really didn't. She was rich, pretty and actually very smart.

Why would she be _scared_?

 _You're scared you won't get as much recognition because there are more people to compete with._

Was that true? She always knew she loved attention because that was the only way she could feel like she actually mattered to the world. Was she actually scared that she might not be as popular as she was back in middle school? Did something so trivial and stupid as popularity mean that much to her?

Yes. Yes, it did.

And she hated Taran for it. For him to be able to see right through her.

Stupid Taran.

But he was right.

If she wanted to be someone in school, she had to make sure that she was among the best, no matter how many students they had.

If that meant she had to be the best in class, or the best in a school activity or sport, even the best looking one in a party, she'll work hard towards that. Even if it meant for her to stoop so low as to only befriend someone if it served as an easy ticket to popularity, _then so be it_.

After all, she already had a very popular cousin who was currently a junior. Her also becoming popular wasn't going to be that hard. Not really.

Smiling happily to herself, Eilonwy got off her bed and carried her purse and her carry-on. She was going to deal with the other three – and rather large – suitcases later.

As she left her bedroom, she thought victoriously;

 _WDA, here I come._

* * *

 **Author's Note**

 **o** Aurora, Ella and Snow are a trio here. Nothing surprising. It's not like I didn't have anybody else to pair them up with(believe me, I could've easily made them best friends with other characters if I wanted to) but I got fed up. Fed up that people only put them together because they were the 'boring princesses' and there was nothing much going on for them, so the best thing to do is just dump them together. Granted, they're not my favorite princesses either, but I saw the potential in their traditional behaviors. To me, they seem like your average teenage girls that love makeup, fashion, and the kind of friends that could do literally everything together. I saw that in them, and I had an instant liking to the idea. I have a lot of ideas and playful moments involving these three, and I hope you'll enjoy their story as much as I do.  
PS: The comment about the four-and-a-half size shoes was for my own amusement. I read in Disney Wikia that that was actually Ella's shoe size, and that's way too small, realistically speaking, so I had them make a joke about it. Kudos to anyone who got the reference!

 **o** Jane and Tarzan are just too adorable. One of the best pairings ever. If anyone feels like I made Kida a bit out of character, there is a reason to it. I feel this is how she would be if she were a modern day teenager, and it will be explained why later on. And who else likes the Jane and Kida bff pairing? I know I do. Kida's such a tease :P  
By the way, can anyone guess the brunette freshman girl Jane was drawing?

 **o** I'll admit. I'm a Toy Story freak. I loved all the three movies, and I'm very excited for the fourth one to come out(why? Woody and Bo...enough said). Despite the fact that the Toy Story gang are not part of the main characters, I've got a lot of things planned out for them. Especially Woody and Buzz. Gotta love those two.

 **o** The bit with Jasmine was supposed to be in the previous chapter and was initially meant to be written in Aladdin's point of view. But considering it was already way too long(nearly 18k words! I still can't believe it), I decided to put it on here instead, and changed it to Jasmine's point of view. If anyone was a little put off at the point where Jasmine was fantasizing of what public school was like, don't be. I figured she was someone who had been to Private Schools all her life, and the only vision of a public school she would have would obviously be the ones portrayed in movies. Which are all lies anyway. We all know school in real life is anything but that. And what do you think about Jasmine and Naveen? Who else thought of the possibility of them actually being good friends?

 **o** For anyone that might be confused, Eilonwy, Taran, and Fflewddur are all characters from the movie The Black Cauldron. While I wouldn't call it 'the best movie in the world', it is actually quite enjoyable and has really nice characters. The villain, The Horned King, is actually pretty good at being...well, bad. And the plot is really nice too. Don't even ask why I'm advertising the movie, I'm not so sure myself XD  
Oh, and if there are any music/instrument pros out there, please don't kill me. I know nothing of B-chef or B-clarf(as Taran would say) and I'm totally lost when it comes to anything that has to do with music. I do love listening to it(any genre is okay with me, I'm not picky) but I can't play an instrument to save my life. The only one I'm remotely good at is the recorder and that was back in grade school, so I can't even remember much. I did take lessons on the violin though, and I absolutely hated it. I guess you can say I used my experience to write Taran's emotions...hehe.

 **Side Note** **:** I would like to explain what's probably on everyone's minds: Engagements and Marriages. I know, that's a little far-fetched. Though let me just tell you that all of it was a result of me watching one too many K-dramas...oops. But try to think about it. I'm no rich kid or anything, but I bet that the people who are, especially if they're from one of those classy families, don't let their kids mix with just anyone. They have standards, preferences, and you know, don't just hang around with people of the lower class. I know what I'm saying doesn't really explain much about the engagements - because this is the 21st Century after all - but bear with me, all of this is just for plot development, and I have a feeling you guys would enjoy it. Besides, this is Disney we're talking about. Where engagements and suitors is not uncommon...so, yeah...

 **Also** I know some of you are getting rather impatient for me to hurry up and show all the Disney Princesses already. Don't worry, they'll be featured very soon ;) And I've already mentioned that they'll be the main characters here, so I hope you'll be patient and stick around till the next update.

 **PS:** Which of the character's introduction was your favorite? And what princess would you like to see next?

~Have a nice day!


	4. Best Year of Our Lives

**Disclaimer** : All rights go to Disney, not me.

 **Word count** : 20,500. I think I should just shut up about the whole 'short chapter' thing -_-"

 **Dedication** : Pllouatfan481516, for the lovely review, and being the only one to answer the question about Wendy being the girl Jane was drawing in the previous chapter. Kudos, and a have a virtual cookie! I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

 **Date Updated** : November 9, 2016. It's been two months... _two months_...I really need to work on my updating schedule.

 **Author** : YooniquelyOresum.

 **I would like to inform you all that I do not have any Beta. The closest I have to one is my sister (younger sister by two years, mind you. I know, I'm so lame) and due to some circumstances, she was unable to help me with this chapter. Now, I'm as imperfect as the next human, but I did try my best, though I'm sure that there are still numerous mistakes in here. So if you notice any errors, please let me know and I'll try to fix them. Writing is not my strong point and I'm always constantly trying to improve.**

 **My sister would've helped me with this chapter, just like the other two, but for some reason she's making her exams more important than my fanfiction about Disney characters in high school.**

 **Meanie...**

* * *

"Best Year of Our Lives"

 _This is gonna be the best year of our lives_

 _Our liiiiiiives_

 _Ooh ooooooh ooh~_

 _-_ me singing in the tune of 'Best Day of my Life' by American Authors...

* * *

 **.**

 _ **Friday, September 9**_

(Evening)

 **.**

Lady Dear was hungry.

Scratch that, she was _starving_.

She glanced at her gold wristwatch and groaned, for what felt like the seventh time that evening.

 _Where's Giselle?_ She thought absentmindedly as she scanned her surroundings, hoping to catch a glimpse of her very late friend.

Lady was currently in Walt Disney's Auditorium. It was in the early evening, around five-ish, and it wasn't going to be long before the students at WDA were expected to start arriving.

Most of the staff were busy with the preparation for the new school year and such, so the people like her that had arrived early usually helped out, one way or the other. At the moment, all the students were in the Auditorium, helping decorate the place for the assembly that was going to take place the next morning.

Lady had been so excited to finally be in her Senior year at Walt Disney Academy, and had been one of the first students to show up. She had been ecstatic, greeting all of her favorite teachers, and politely acknowledging the ones that were not so…nice. It also helped that her best friend since who-knows-when, Giselle Adams, had been just as excited as she was, and met Lady in school, not long after she had arrived.

It had been fun talking and laughing with her friend, and greeting some of her classmates that she hadn't seen for the past two months, exchanging summer stories, telling each other of the places they had visited, and simply enjoying the happiness of being in each other's presence again.

Though, Lady soon realized that getting to school so early was, in fact, a very dumb idea. At least it was, when the last meal she had taken that day was breakfast. Unless you counted the cherry flavored bubblegum Giselle had given her a while after their meeting. Lady already regretted accepting the gum, because it only made her hungrier and she threw it away after only chewing it for approximately four and a half minutes.

The state of her hunger eventually turned into a conversation and that was when they realized that they both were very hungry. They had agreed on Giselle to quickly dash off campus and grab some food from a nearby restaurant for them to munch on while continuing their chat, but it had been nearly half an hour since Giselle left and the tall strawberry blonde was nowhere to be seen.

Which brought Lady's thought back to, _Where's Giselle?_ as she proceeded to continue glaring at the watch on her left wrist.

After finding out that a minute had barely passed since the last time she checked, Lady groaned – for the eighth time now – and sat down on one of the navy blue chairs in the back of the very, _very_ large Auditorium.

Thinking of nothing else better to do, and desperately looking for a way to distract herself from her grumbling stomach, Lady decided to scan her surroundings.

The Auditorium was pretty much done. The theater-like chairs were already dusted from the dirt that had gathered on them due to the lack of use over the summer vacation, and most of the decorations were already put up. At the front of the Auditorium was a very large stage where a golden banner with the words, 'WELCOME BACK TO WDA', written in bold all case letters, hung above it.

Lady smiled to herself. It was the exact same decorations they put up every year, but it always looked so beautiful to her. She found it weird that this would be the last time she would be seeing the very corny and over-done decorations, and would be sitting on the very uncomfortable blue chairs.

She was definitely going to miss it all, no doubt about that.

She turned to a little corner near the stage and found Tiana, a friend and classmate, standing there with her two friends, Aladdin and Flynn. She held up a red ribbon and was giving some gestures, as if trying to explain to them how the decoration should be used. Aladdin payed full attention to her, copying her gestures, though it was fairly obvious he wasn't understanding a word she said, as he was tying the ribbon in a very wrong way.

Flynn, on the other hand, didn't seem the least bit interested in whatever Tiana was saying. Lady watched the brown-haired Junior as he rolled his eyes, and climbed up the ladder, mumbling something the whole time. He stood at the top of the ladder, trying – and failing – to hang the ribbon up correctly, but it wasn't long before he lost his balance, and fell hard, face-flat on the floor, taking a smaller banner down with him.

Lady couldn't help but chuckle to herself as she watched Tiana scold the life out of the boy, not even bothering to ask whether he was alright or had broken a bone or something, because it was a pretty nasty fall.

Instead, the poor boy laid flat on the floor, Tiana scowling at him as she yelled words that Lady couldn't quite figure out due to their distance. And the other boy, Aladdin, simply just laughed his butt off.

It was a funny sight, really.

Lady then turned away from them and focused her attention on one of her good friends, Atta Diller, and her boyfriend, Flik Foley, who were having a heated argument about something. And as far as Lady could tell, it was probably something minor or unimportant.

Flik and Atta were the school's very own on-and-off couple. Every school seemed to have one, and Walt Disney Academy was no exception.

It wasn't a secret that Flik was head-over-heels in love with Atta. And Lady knew that Atta really liked him too. The problem here was that they were…different. And sometimes Lady feared that they were a bit too different.

Flick was one of those 'dive head first into a situation' type of guy, while Atta preferred things to be planned out and thought through thoroughly and logically. So their entirely different views of life often led to one argument or the other. Sometimes big, and some other times, so small and juvenile you would question whether they were really in high school and not just some immature middle-schoolers who were experiencing dating for the first time.

Some of the arguments ended up so big and they would go on what Atta usually called 'a break'. Lady sighed as she watched them with a sad face. She knew there would be a day they would eventually break up for good. And she knew they too, knew that day was coming. Everybody knew.

Despite still having strong feelings for each other, she knew the relationship was getting harder and harder for them to keep. It was just a matter of time before they called it quits. For good. And when that happened, Lady would be there for her friend. Right there beside Atta and helping her in every way possible.

Lady sent a sad smile in their direction, even though it was obvious that they weren't even aware of her watching them, and she faced back to the front of the stage, staring off into space.

Then her stomach growled again.

 _Come on Giselle_ , she mentally pleaded, as she started to get worried.

What if something bad had happened to Giselle? What if she had been involved in some sort of motor accident, and was currently on her way to the Disney Central Hospital?

Or worse. What if she was stuck in traffic and the food was getting _cold_?!

Lady immediately shook her head of that thought as she mentally slapped herself for even thinking for one second that the temperature of the food was more important than her friend's well-being. Already bringing out her phone to give Giselle a quick call to find out whether she was okay – and whether she was still bringing the food, because accident or no accident, Lady _was_ starving – she heard her own phone beep.

Lady practically jumped, already beaming and did a little dance in her seat. Giselle must have already texted her first, and Lady honestly couldn't care less whether she was close or a bit far from the school. She was just glad that she had finally gotten in contact with her friend. She unlocked her phone in such a hurry she wrote her code wrong the first three times, then she opened the message app, and…her face fell.

The message was not from Gisselle.

Heck, it wasn't even a message at all.

It was just some stupid notification, informing her of an update from _Madam Mim's Monologues_.

Madam Mim – at least, that's what she called herself – was Fantasia's very own residential Gossip. She was a woman either in her late thirties or early forties. Nobody was actually certain. For all Lady knew, Madam Mim might as well be a woman in her sixties and nobody would be able to tell. That woman had done so many plastic surgeries, and had been around for as long as she remembered. Heck, Madam Mim was even existing when Lady's _parents_ had attended WDA themselves.

Madam Mim was basically a Gossip Blogger. She somehow knew everything that happened in Fantasia and wrote about it – usually over-exaggerating a few of those stories. Though, what she seemed to like writing about the most – besides badmouthing Fantasia's very own Mayor, Merlin, that is. Everyone knew she held a strong dislike for Merlin, though no one really knew why – was the students at Walt Disney Academy. And she wasn't the only one. Lots of reporters and so-called journalists seemed to have a thrill in writing about the private lives of WDA students. Lady knew part of the reason for this was because most of them had parents that were unbelievably wealthy and stinking rich, some even having names that were more known to the world than the Presidents of some small countries.

But most of these people took things too far and often wrote information that was clearly meant to be personal. How most of them got hold of these details was beyond her. Though Lady was fairly sure that most of them was made up, anyway.

Lady opened the notification with little interest, expecting to see yet another article on her ramblings of why Merlin was a terrible mayor, but her eyes widened the minute she read the headlines.

There it was, written in bold letters, each of them in uppercase, at the top of the page:

 **WALT DISNEY ACADEMY'S VERY OWN SWEETHEARTS SPLIT UP**

 **What does this nasty breakup mean?**

 **Is this a sign of an unhappy year at everyone's favorite Private School?**

And right below that was a picture of her and her ex. Each of their faces in the halves of a broken heart, with about three question marks underneath.

Lady continued staring at her phone in disbelief as she felt color draining from her face.

Why her? And how the heck did Madam Mim know of their breakup?

 _And why her_?

They had both promised each other not to tell anyone of their breakup until school started.

SO HOW THE HECK DID MADAM MIM FIND OUT?!

The only person Lady had told was Giselle, and she knew that her best friend was incapable of spilling secrets. Once told a secret, that secret was bound to go with her to the grave. So…

Was it him? Did he tell one of his guy friends, who eventually spilled the beans to someone else?

No. She doubted he told. It had even been his idea to keep it a secret.

And it wasn't that they didn't want anybody to know, either. They knew that eventually, everyone at school would find out of their breakup, but they didn't want them to find out this way. _This_ was exactly what they had been avoiding!

Lady cringed as she felt all eyes on her. Apparently, everybody else that was in the hall was also following Madam Mim's blog. And probably were the rest of WDA students. And most likely the rest of Fantasia too. Madam Mim was _that_ popular.

Then she was struck with realization. The whole of Fantasia…the whole of _Fantasia_ …had just read that post. Even the ones that didn't know her, now knew of her 'nasty breakup'.

Which was written out of context, mind you. The breakup was anything but nasty. The better term used here would be mutual.

They both felt something for each other in the beginning. And then later on, they felt nothing. And then they simply broke-up. No fights, no yelling, no crying afterwards. If anything, it was a bit awkward. And Lady felt an instant rush of relief when they were done. And she knew he felt the exact same way.

Where was he, anyway? She shouldn't be facing their entire school alone.

Sighing, Lady tentatively looked up from her phone. And there they were. Different eyes with different colors, staring back at her. Some questioning, some surprised, and some others that Lady could tell were itching to grab her by the shoulders and demand when, where, how, and why the breakup had happened.

Before Lady even as much as opened her mouth, she felt someone wrap their arms over her shoulder. She turned to her right to face the owner of the arm, and saw none other than Gaston Hunter, the residential jerk.

Lady frowned. "What do you want, Gaston?" she asked, too tired to shake off his loose – and disgusting – side embrace.

Gaston simply gave her a creepy smile. "I'm hurt, Lady. I really am," he said as he put his free hand up to his chest, the other still wrapped around Lady. "You and your beloved broke up, and you didn't tell me?"

She rolled her eyes, and finally wriggled herself out of his hold. "Excuse me, but since when was I obligated to inform you of everything that happens in my life?"

He continued smiling. "Aw, c'mon Lady, don't be like that. We've been classmates for three years, the least you could do, not only for me but everyone else, was to tell us that you guys had such a horrible broke up. And after two years of dating, no less." He then gestured to the rest of the students in the Auditorium that were still there, watching them with rapt attention. "And to think, we first heard it from a Gossip Blog. You have any idea how we feel knowing that Madam Mim found out about something so vital before us, the very people you've been going to school with for years?" he shook his head in feigned disappointment. "Such a shame, really."

"Leave her alone, Gaston," Atta quickly came to her aid.

He just scoffed. "Please, you can't tell me that you're not hurt," he grinned, and not in a good way. "After all, you are one of her close friends. Must've been painful to find out that she didn't even think you were important enough to be told of this little secret."

Atta scowled at him, though Lady knew that that was exactly how she was feeling. The breakup, for some reason, was a big deal. And everyone seemed to have this silly thought in their head that she should have called every one of her friends to tell them immediately it had happened. What exactly did they want her to do, anyway? Wear an 'I just broke up with my boyfriend' T-shirt?

There were plenty other people in school that broke up with whoever they were dating, and no one simply cared. So why was hers any important?

Okay, yeah, it was a shocking news, for they were one of the few people in school that actually went out for more than year, but still. Giselle and her boyfriend, Edward, had been going out since _Freshman_ year. That's way more than hers. And if they suddenly broke up, would anyone care?

…Wait…yep, they would. Most definitely.

Lady refrained from rolling her eyes. Why were her classmates so nosy, anyway? Whoever she dated or broke up with was none of their concern. It was _her_ life, after all. If she hadn't found it necessary to tell the whole world of her new status as a single teenager, then that meant it just wasn't important. Simple as that.

She sighed and noticed that everyone in the Auditorium was still watching her, as if expecting some sort of explanation from her. Like what she did was so terrible and unheard of that she should immediately get on her knees and start apologizing and telling them of how sorry she was for not updating them of her own personal affairs sooner.

Tch. If that was what they were actually expecting, then they were in for a long wait.

Instead she muttered a small "Excuse me," and quickly hurried out of the building. She heard what sounded like Gaston cackling off in the distance, but she didn't even look back. Instead, she stared straight ahead, until she finally got outside.

She made sure she was at a safe distance from the Auditorium before she finally stopped, taking in the warm Autumn fresh air.

Before she even got a chance to relax, she saw a familiar white limousine drive into view.

The limousine came to a stop and the door opened. Though the person that came out was definitely not the person she was expecting.

It was Esmeralda Anderson.

That made Lady frown in confusion. Since when was Esmeralda rich enough to ride in a limo?

The dark-skinned girl saw her staring and smiled in her direction. Lady smiled back and gave her a small wave, before Esmeralda quickly entered the Auditorium. Lady and Esmeralda were both seniors and had been classmates since Freshman year, though they weren't exactly buddies. They did always greet each other though, and had engaged in a few conversations together, so they were cool.

Just when Lady was about to avert her eyes from the very familiar vehicle, another person got out.

And there he was.

Blonde hair and blue eyes, dressed in a dark blue blazer and jeans, with a white T-shirt underneath, looking the same as always.

Her Ex.

Phoebus Knight.

The tall blonde had his phone to his ear, talking rapidly with an annoyed expression written on his face. His head then turned and his blue eyes met Lady's brown ones.

Lady froze.

Phoebus kept his gaze on her as he said something else into the phone before he hung up and started walking towards her.

Lady stayed in her position and a mere two minutes later, he was right in front of her, and they both just stood, staring at each other.

Phoebus was the one to break the silence. "Hey," he said with a small smile.

"Hi," she smiled back.

He smirked. "You look tense. Am I that scary?"

Lady rolled her eyes, easing up a bit. "Don't flatter yourself, Phoebus. How was your summer?"

"Mostly boring, just stayed at home. You?"

"Travelled to the States to visit my aunt."

"Cool."

"Yeah…"

They fell into another silence.

Well…this was awkward…

"Um…" Lady started. "Did you read Madam Mim's latest blog?"

Phoebus scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Yeah…about that…I thought we agreed not to tell anyone about that yet."

"I didn't tell anyone," Lady told him.

Phoebus looked surprised. "You didn't?"

"Of course I didn't, you did tell me not to say anything," she put her hand on her chest, putting on a fake offended expression on her face. "It hurts that you think I'll do something like that."

He chuckled. "Sorry, didn't mean it like that. I mean, I told Smith and almost blamed him for getting the secret out. And I'm sure you told Giselle, so I just thought…"

"Giselle wouldn't tell anyone," Lady said confidently. "Trust me, it wasn't her."

Phoebus sighed, running his hands through his blonde locks. "Then who was it? This is exactly what I was avoiding. Now, I'm sure our schoolmates will be nosy about it."

"Oh, they are," Lady said. "Why do you think I left there in the first place?"

Phoebus looked thoughtful. "Is it that bad or is it safe enough for me to enter?"

"You can enter if you want, but I'm not getting back into feeling like I'm some endangered species in an Animal Exhibit until Giselle comes back."

He chuckled again. "Well, they were going to find out sooner or later, anyway. Might as well just get it over with," then he frowned. "I'm starting to hate Gossip Blogs more and more each day."

Lady laughed. "Good luck in there."

They had a short awkward hug before Phoebus entered the Auditorium.

When he left, Lady sighed. She really hoped that the entire year wouldn't be this awkward with him. Honestly, if this was how having an Ex felt like, Lady was sure she never wanted to break up with anyone again.

Her stomach growled and for the umpteenth time that evening, Lady groaned.

 _Where the heck is Giselle?!_

* * *

Chip Potts skipped up the stairs, two at a time, of the Rosenthal Household. As he skipped, he hummed the tune to a song he heard on the T.V. just a few minutes ago. When he finally reached the top of the stairs, he was instantly greeted by the loud and blaring sound of punk metal music.

He rolled his eyes. Adam was at it again.

He walked forward and stopped directly in front of Adam's room, and banged loudly on the door. "Adam! Mom said you should come down! _Adam_!"

Unsurprisingly, Chip was completely ignored. And he knew it was not because the music was too loud. Because he heard Adam increase the volume of the song – should he even call it that? It sounded more like noise to him, really – mere seconds later.

Obviously, Adam had heard him calling, and attempted to drown his voice with that horrible music, expecting him to just give up and walk away.

Well, that wasn't going to happen.

"Adam, get your butt out here!" Chip called out again.

No response.

"I'm being serious, it's important!" he tried again.

Nothing.

Chip groaned. Adam was always this stubborn. Sometimes Chip felt like he was the older one between them despite Adam being twice his height and two years older than him. Honestly, for a high schooler, Adam acted like a two-year-old most of the time.

Chip then let out a deep breath. He didn't want to have to come to this, but if Adam was going to do this the hard way… "I mean it, Adam! Mom said I should tell you that your dad's coming home today!"

The only reply Adam gave him was a slight decrease of the volume of his rock song, so Chip knew he was listening. _Progress_.

"She wants you to come down and get ready! He's already on his way!"

When Adam didn't reply, Chip bit his lip. Okay, okay, what else would make Adam come out?

Then he grinned. "Eric is coming with him!"

The music was turned off. _Success_.

"You're a liar," Adam's deep and scratchy voice called out from the other side of the door.

"I'm not," Chip called back to him. "And judging from what mom said, your dad's not in a good mood."

Chip didn't hear anything and assumed Adam had gone back to ignoring him. Then he huffed. "Fine, don't believe me. But don't say I didn't warn you. Remember what happened the last time your dad visited and you refused to–"

Chip stopped abruptly when the door was flung open. He smirked and looked up to find Adam, towering above him in the doorway of his room.

Chip always found it annoying that Adam was only two years older than him, yet he was 6"2, a whole foot taller than he was. Honestly, what the heck was this sixteen-year-old eating?

"Is my father really coming?" Adam asked, glaring at him.

Chip gave him his best innocent smile. "Why don't you go downstairs and ask mom, yourself?"

Adam just grunted, but went downstairs nonetheless.

 _Victory_!

This was pretty much the way things worked out between them.

Chip would holler at Adam and bang on his room door, Adam would try – and fail – to ignore him, Chip would tell him something to get him out of his room, Adam would stupidly fall for it, and eventually Chip wins.

 _As always_.

The fourteen-year-old blonde merely grinned, as he followed Adam, skipping down the stairs.

Then his mind drifted off. Summer vacation was over. And he would be starting high school next week. And not just any high school. He was going to be studying at Walt Disney Academy. To be honest, Chip didn't know what to expect. He barely knew what a regular high school was like, not to talk of one that held so much prestige. He had tried talking to Adam about it, and maybe get a word of advice or two, but the tall teenager only grunted in response whenever he brought it up.

Which made Chip constantly wondering whether Adam even had any friends in school. Come to think of it, Adam had never had a classmate over at the house, and Chip never heard him talking on the phone with anyone. Chip would've guessed that Adam only ever communicated with them on all those social network sites, but Chip doubted he was even on those sites.

All Adam ever did was stay in his room, listen to punk and rock metal music, being all broody. He almost seemed like a…loner.

What made Chip sad was that he wasn't even sure whether it was by choice or not.

"Mrs. Potts!" he heard Adam bark the minute they got downstairs.

"What's the matter now?" Chip's mother simply asked, coming out from the kitchen wearing her purple apron.

"Is it true that Father and Eric are coming today?"

Mrs. Potts frowned and gave her son a puzzled look, who just smiled sheepishly in reply. The middle-aged woman sighed. "No Adam, your cousin isn't coming until Monday, and your father never said anything about visiting."

Adam gritted his teeth and turned to glare at Chip.

The young boy's smile didn't falter. "Oh, must've misheard. My bad. By the way, mom said it's your turn to set the table."

Adam crossed his arms, as he dangerously moved closer to Chip. "You called me all the way from my room just so I could _set the table_?"

Chip just shrugged, not looking a bit scared. "It's your turn."

In a swift move, Adam had the younger boy dangling upside down, with his head a few inches from the ground, and both his ankles in Adam's grip.

Mrs. Potts simply rolled her eyes and made her way back to the kitchen. "Put him down, Adam."

Adam only huffed. "He lied to me, Mrs. Potts, he deserves to be punished."

"Fine, just don't kill him."

"What?!" Chip exclaimed as he tried to wriggle himself out of Adam's grip, which probably wasn't the smartest idea considering he was upside down. "Mom!"

"Don't 'mom' me, Chip," his mother said from inside the kitchen, where she had apparently resumed her cooking. "I told you to get him down here to set the table, not lie to him."

"You and I both know that he never would've come down here if I had told him that!"

"Did you try?"

"Well…no…"

"Then how would you know he wouldn't have bothered coming down if you didn't even bother to try asking first?"

"No, he's right," Adam said. "I wouldn't have left my room."

"You know what, I don't care. I just want that table to be set with the correct amount of plates and cutleries before the food is ready."

Adam groaned. "Why are we eating here, anyway? We're still going to eat dinner in school."

"Only Lord knows when they'll be starting dinner in that school, and I can't send my poor baby there on an empty stomach."

Chip frowned. "I am not a baby, mom!" Then he started to feel a bit dizzy. "On second thought, I don't mind. Your poor baby is starting to feel a little sick." He then felt a bit of puke rushing down his throat before his swallowed it back down.

Adam was such a jerk. Using his inhumanly large build to mistreat small people.

"Sick? What do you mean 'sick'?" Mrs. Potts asked, coming out from the kitchen. "Adam! What on earth are you doing? And why is he still upside down?!"

"What?" Adam asked her, giving her an innocent expression. "You did give me permission to punish him."

The woman put her hands on her hips. "And what punishment would that be?"

Adam grinned. "How many minutes he can last upside down before passing out."

"Adam Rosenthal! Put him down _now_!"

The boy rolled his eyes. "Fine." He all but threw Chip across the room, with the blonde boy landing on one of the loveseats.

Mrs. Potts immediately rushed to his side, and cupped his slightly green face in her hands. "Chip, honey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, mom," Chip said grudgingly, swallowing another bit of puke down. _Eww_.

Mrs. Potts sighed in relief, and tiredly shook her head disapprovingly at Adam. "Did you have to throw him, though?"

"Hey, at least he survived," Adam shrugged. "I mean, yeah I had intended on him to land on the couch and not the loveseat, but whatever. He's fine, anyway."

"So you _mis-aimed_?!" Mrs. Potts hollered. "The couch and loveseat are nowhere _near_ each other! He could've fallen on the floor or hit his head or gotten a concussion or even–"

"Which is why we should focus on the bright-side," Adam attempted small smile. "None of that happened and he's still alive."

"You are in a heap of trouble for this, young man."

"What? Why?" Adam tried to complain. "He lied to me! And you always go on and on about how lying is such a bad thing."

"You threw my son across the room! And there is a slight chance he could've injured himself!"

"To be fair, I was only kidding when I said that. I had intended on him to land on the loveseat."

Both Chip and his mother gave Adam an unimpressed look.

"Okay fine, there's a huge chance he could've broken his neck, but like I keep on saying: _He didn't_ ," Adam said. "And I don't even get why I lost my aim, I'm usually pretty good at tossing the little dweeb around. Maybe my hair got in my eyes or something."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Mrs. Potts said. "Your hair is getting a tad too long."

"A tad?" Chip said, his face finally going back to its natural color. "His hair is past his shoulders. That's way more than ' _a tad_ '."

"Yes, Adam," Mrs. Potts agreed. "Don't you think it's time you got a haircu–?"

"No."

"But your hair is so long and messy."

"I usually tie it to the back."

"Into a ponytail? Isn't that a girls' hairstyle?"

"Guys are free to have long hair."

"But don't you think you'd look much better if you just cut it a little?"

"No, okay?!" Adam yelled. "And how the hell did this conversation change to me, anyway?"

Mrs. Potts frowned at his temper, but turned to her son instead. "How do you feel, honey?"

Chip groaned. "I'm fine, mom. Stop smothering me."

"Fine then," Mrs. Potts stood up. "I don't care which one of you does it, but that table in the Dining Room must be set. Dinner will be ready in ten minutes." Then she left.

"Dinner at five?" Adam said as he sat on the sofa opposite the loveseat Chip was still sprawled on. "Doesn't even sound normal."

Chip just glared at him. "You are a vile human being."

Adam grinned. "And you're just now noticing. And here I thought you were smarter than that."

"How can you even be proud to be called that? No wonder you don't have any friends."

"Hey," Adam grinned. "I don't have any friends 'cause humans are stupid and not worth my time."

Chip rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Just go set the table already."

Adam simple leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. "Nah, too much of a hassle."

"Just set the table for three people. How is that any work?"

"If it's so easy, then why don't you do it?"

"It's _your_ turn. Do it yourself."

Adam opened his eyes. "Just help me do it, okay? What's the point of being Bros if we can't even help each other out?"

"Okay, first off, we're not Bros. We're not even related. Second, if we were to use that logic, that'll turn me into your servant 'cause I'm sure you wouldn't do anything for me in return."

"Hmm, I like the sound of that," Adam smirked. "'Chip the Servant'. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

"Servant my butt," Chip grumbled.

"No, I can actually imagine it," Adam said and closed his eyes again. "Yo, servant. Go get me a bottle of water, I'm thirsty."

Chip rolled his eyes. "Keep dreaming. Besides, you love me too much to treat me like your servant."

Adam scoffed. "Please. You're the bane of my existence."

"Oh, really? Wow, I'm so flattered," Chip feigned happiness. "And here I thought that position was for Eric alone. It means a lot."

Adam opened his eyes and glared at him darkly. "Don't bring _him_ into this."

"Why not?" Chip asked innocently. "Isn't he your beloved cousin?"

"If you want to live, I suggest you shut up, _now_ ," Adam said with venom dripping in his voice.

Chip just smirked. For some unknown reasons, Adam really hated his cousin, Eric, and never liked to talk about him. Usually, Chip avoided this conversation. But considering the fact that the crazy sixteen-year-old with mental issues nearly killed him, this was just payback.

Sure, he'd end up getting nearly killed again – this time, most likely on purpose – but he was still getting the rise out of Adam. And he was enjoying every moment of it.

"Why?" the blonde boy asked. "I always did wonder why you hate him so much. And he seems like such a cool guy. At least he's way more fun to hang out with than you–"

"Three seconds," was all Adam said after that, and Chip could swear on his mother's infinite set of teacups that his eyes were bloody red.

Well, Chip didn't need to be told twice.

Before Adam could even finish his two-word statement, Chip was already on his feet, dashing around the room. Immediately, Adam got off and pounced after him.

"You were supposed to count to three!" Chip yelled as he ran from the deranged teen.

"I counted in my head!"

"That's a lie! It wasn't even up to three seconds!" Chip shouted back, and he looked behind him to see how close Adam was to catching him. Which prove to be a bad move as he lost his balance and nearly tripped. By the time he regained his posture, Adam was merely a few feet away from him.

"Mo-om!" Chip called as he ran past the kitchen, with Adam hot on his trail.

"Take it outside, boys," she told them calmly, not even looking up from what she was doing.

Once she heard the front door open, with them not even bothering to close it back, Mrs. Potts rolled her eyes and wiped her hands on her apron. "Well, I guess I'm the one setting the table today."

* * *

"Pass me the stapler, Quasi," Esmeralda said from her position from the top of a ladder.

"I gave it to you a while ago," Quasimodo said, after searching through the box of supplies before remembering it wasn't there.

"Oh, yeah. I think I gave it to Tiana."

Just when Quasimodo was about to turn around and look for the dark-skinned senior, he saw two of her friends, Aladdin and Flynn, walking towards them.

"What are you talking about? The Lions were way better during the season."

"Look, I know the Lions won and all, but you have to admit that the Dinosaurs had the best players."

"Um…guys," Quasi said as he approached them.

They stopped their little conversation and looked up at him. "Hey Quasi," Aladdin smiled, while Flynn just nodded in his direction.

"Do you have the stapler?" Quasimodo asked.

"Yeah…" Flynn said, playing with the object in his hands. "Who needs it?"

"Just pass the stapler, Rider," Esmeralda said as she stretched out her arm to collect it from him.

"I would, but I can't."

Esmeralda rolled her eyes. "And why not?"

"Well, the banner is crooked. Don't you think so, Al?"

Aladdin eyed the banner above Esmeralda's head. "Yeah, it is a bit crooked."

"Who cares? One crooked banner wouldn't kill anyone," Esmeralda groaned. "Just give me the stupid stapler, already."

"Okay, catch."

"What? No, don't throw–" Esmeralda started saying, but lunged for the object that was already flying in the air towards her direction. Unsurprisingly, she lost her balance and fell off the ladder right into Quasimodo's arms.

Esmeralda glared at Flynn, as she tightened her grip around Quasimodo's neck. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

The brown-haired teenager just laughed. "Darn right, I did. No way am I the only one falling off a ladder today."

"In a way, you still are," Aladdin pointed out. "Quasi caught Esmeralda but no one caught you. So technically–"

"Oh, shut up, Al," Flynn huffed.

"You can let me down now, Quasi."

Quasimodo's face flushed once he realized he was still carrying Esmeralda. "Oh sorry," he said and put her down.

"Where did the stapler go, anyway?" Aladdin asked.

Esmeralda's bright green eyes trailed to the foot of the ladder. "There it is." She picked it up, only to find one of the handles missing. She turned around and frowned at Flynn. "Look at this. You broke it!"

"Me?" Flynn asked. "You're the one who couldn't catch it. With your small girly hands."

Esmeralda groaned. "You idiot, I was on a _ladder_. And I told you not to throw it!"

"Please, I would've caught it even if I were on a tight rope with my eyes _closed_."

"Oh yeah? Catch this," Esmeralda all but threw the broken stapler in the direction of Flynn's head, hitting him square in the nose.

"Ow!" Flynn screeched, his hands on his nose, frantically searching for any signs of blood. "Are you crazy, woman?! How dare you try and ruin my beautiful face!" he whined.

Aladdin was already on the floor, rolling with laughter. "Oh man! First you fall off a ladder, then you get your nose broken! Today is _not_ your day!"

It took Esmeralda a few seconds to realize what she did, then she too joined Aladdin, laughing at the scenario.

Only Quasimodo had the decency to laugh quietly, biting his lip and making snorting sounds.

Flynn glared at the lot of them, gave them the middle finger, and turned on his heel to leave.

"And where are you going?" Aladdin asked, after quieting down a bit.

"I'm going to tell Tiana of how that witch," Flynn turned around and pointed at Esmeralda, who was still laughing. "–tried to kill me with a stapler."

Esmeralda stopped laughing and rolled her eyes. "I may or may not have broken your nose, big deal."

"See what I'm saying? She's a witch!" Flynn said angrily. "Only a witch would ruin a beautifully and perfectly sculpted face and be happy about it."

"You're probably right," Esmeralda said. "But the thing is, I didn't ruin a beautifully and perfectly sculpted face. I ruined yours."

That made Aladdin burst out laughing again.

"Dude!" Flynn shouted at him. "Whose side are you on?!"

"Honestly, Tiana's," Aladdin said. "Prepare to get the best scolding of your life. I can almost hear her now: 'How can you be so careless?! Not only did you break your _worthless_ nose, but you broke the stapler! Can you do _anything_ right? Do I have to do _everything_ for you?'" Aladdin finished with an over-exaggerated high-pitched voice.

"That's probably what she would say," Flynn agreed. "Except she won't call my nose worthless."

"Yes she will," Aladdin and Esmeralda said in unison.

Flynn frowned at them and gave Quasimodo a pleading look. The junior merely shrugged. "She'll most likely call it that…or probably something similar…"

Flynn huffed. "Liars, all of you. My nose is the best thing that has ever happened to you guys!"

Aladdin and Quasimodo raised their eyebrows in an 'Are you for real?' manner, while Esmeralda laughed. "Nah, but your broken nose is definitely the best thing that has happened for me."

"Okay, Esme. I don't think his poor ego can grasp the fact that his face might no longer be perfect," Aladdin said.

"It never was," Esmeralda crossed her arms.

Aladdin just chuckled as he patted Flynn on the back. "C'mon, let's go," then he gave Esmeralda and Quasimodo a small wave. "Bye guys," he said to them as he and Flynn left, with the latter grumbling something about 'witches' and his 'precious nose'.

"Flynn is such a baby," Esmeralda said once they were gone.

Quasimodo smiled. "He sure acts that way sometimes." Then he glanced at the still un-stapled banner that was starting the get more crooked. "Where are we going to get another stapler?"

Esmeralda frowned. "Okay, not only is he a baby, but he's also a big idiot."

Quasimodo couldn't disagree to that.

* * *

Alice Liddell stared out the window of her sister's car, a bored expression written on her face. Her sister was currently driving her to Walt Disney Academy, the boarding school that she would be spending the next four years of her life in.

Boring.

Alice didn't like school. She never understood why it was so important. Why were people – especially her sister – so bent on going to a good school, then a good college, and eventually finding a good job?

The mere thought of it was sickening.

Adults had the most boring lives, that much she could tell.

Alice would prefer to not go to school, though. She would rather go out into the world and explore all the fascinating things it had to offer, or even stay in her backyard with her cat, Dinah, on her lap, day dreaming about everything and anything.

That was much more fun than going to school.

School was just plain and boring. It always had this dark and gloomy atmosphere that didn't even make her eager to learn. At least, Elementary School was a bit more fun. There, they had lots of pictures and colors and very nice teachers and there were some days where she was actually eager to go to school.

She soon came to find out that Middle school was much worse. There weren't any colors, and the only pictures present were the ones in the Biology laboratory of the Digestive system, Respiratory system, Skeletal System, and loads of other systems that didn't interest her.

When Alice had complained to her sister the minute she had gotten home from her first day at Castle Middle School, her sister had simply told her that things were bound to get more serious as she got older.

Which Alice interpreted as, "The rest of your life will be plain, boring and serious. Consider your childhood gone."

Blah.

If that was the case, then Alice certainly was in no rush to grow older. She didn't want to turn out like her sister, after all, who had very little imagination and barely ever laughed.

Alice didn't want to stop laughing. She loved laughing. And she loved making people laugh.

But she wasn't in the mood to laugh, though. Usually, when she was feeling down, she sang her favorite song from _The Sound of Music_. That always made her feel better.

But that hadn't worked this time around. So here she was, about to start high school at WDA, and she was dreading every single moment of it.

"Alice?" her older sister, Mathilda, called out to her from the driver's seat.

Alice pretended she didn't hear.

Her sister sighed. "What is it you don't like about the school? The fact that it's…well, _school_ …or that it is a boarding school?"

Alice shrugged and rested her forehead on the glass. "Both, I suppose."

"Forehead off the glass, Alice," her sister said in a stern tone.

"Well, why should I?" Alice asked stubbornly, not moving from her position. "I'll be gone for a whole term and won't get the privilege to do this anymore. I think I deserve the right to be allowed to put my forehead on the glass one last time before you desert me to face my inevitable doom."

Alice heard her sister chuckle, and that made her smile a bit. She was glad that she still managed to make someone laugh, despite being in a shallow pit of unhappiness herself. But hearing her sister laugh, almost made her feel better. _Almost_.

She was still very upset with her entire family for sending her to school though, despite her desperate cries and pleas to let her stay home.

"Stop being so dramatic, Alice," her sister said. "Besides, you'll be coming home for a short break during Thanksgiving. And you're free to come home every weekend if you wish."

"No thanks," Alice grumbled. "I'm certain that the next time I step foot into the house, I'm never getting out."

"Really?" her sister glanced at her at the corner of her eyes. "Won't you miss Dinah?"

"Of course I will," Alice frowned. "The mere idea of pets not being allowed in school is utter rubbish. Another reason why I dislike it so very much." She removed her forehead from the glass and turned to face her sister. "Can't you turn this car around? I have a feeling you're making a very big mistake by sending me there."

"Alice, could you stop complaining?" Mathilda groaned. "You're making it sound like I'm sending you to some strict military boarding school."

"You might as well be," Alice muttered. "I had this speculation, that big and fancy schools like the one you're sending me to are not what they seem."

Her sister refrained from rolling her eyes. "Really? How so?" she asked dryly.

Alice's bright blue eyes lit up, and she bounced in her seat. "Well, I imagine that schools like this may look like it's very nice. They put nice pictures on their brochures and school websites, and make it seem like the teachers are wonderfully kind and kid-friendly. But what everyone does not know is that behind the strong and expensive iron gates of the school, is a living hell for the kids. They make them wear these dreary and uncomfortable uniforms and don't treat them very nicely. And there's a woman in charge of it all. This woman hates the kids and absolutely detests pests, especially cats. She has all kinds of canes to beat the children with, and anyone that opposes her, adult or children alike, she orders for their heads to be chopped off and–"

"Alice, enough," Mathilda said sternly, cutting her off. "Walt Disney Academy is a fine and prestigious school, and you should consider yourself lucky to be accepted instead of coming up with ridiculous stories like that."

"But I was only just–"

"No Alice. This daydreaming and nonsense habit of yours has got to stop. You are sent to school to learn, not conjure up absurd stories about its staff. And I mean it, Alice. No daydreaming, and put all you focus on more sensible things like your schoolwork, is that clear?"

Alice didn't answer.

" _Is that clear_?" her sister repeated.

Alice heaved a sigh. "Yes, Mathilda."

Now she was back to being unhappy, again.

She stared out the window of the car, and started singing her song in her head.

 _Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens_ …

* * *

"She's gonna notice."

"Shaddup, no she won't."

"Do you think she's stupid? Of course she's gonna notice."

"No, I don't think she's stupid. She's just not the most observant person there is…"

"That doesn't mean she won't notice."

"Look, it's not that obvious. The only way she'll notice is if you open that big stupid mouth of yours and tell her, or something."

"I don't need to open this big, smart and wonderful mouth of mine, because it's so obvious. Seriously, you might as well be carrying a big sign saying 'Hey look! Notice me, notice me!' because it's _that_ obvious."

Mulan Fa stopped walking and turned to face her very idiotic friend. _Big, smart and wonderful mouth?_ She thought to herself. That was just…lame. Choosing to ignore his ridiculous statement, she continued the even lame-er argument they were having. "It's not obvious."

The boy aka 'Very Idiotic Friend' rolled his eyes and grabbed an innocent student who just happened to be walking close to them.

The boy had an odd hair color that was midnight black, with a white strip in the middle. She recognized him as a boy in their year, with a weird name.

What was it again? Dandelion? Meadow?

Whatever. It was something like that, anyway.

"You know this chick, right?" her friend asked the student, jabbing his thumb in Mulan's direction.

The boy glanced at her and nodded feebly, looking a bit…scared.

Mulan rolled her eyes. "Jim, at least let the poor boy down. He's two feet off the ground!"

Her friend aka 'Very Idiotic Friend' aka Jim, glanced at her and then looked back at the boy in front of him. His eyes widened, like he was just now noticing that he was holding the boy up by the collar of his shirt. "Oops," he chuckled nervously and put the boy down. "Sorry about that."

The poor boy merely nodded, and straightened his already rumpled shirt.

Jim cleared his throat and continued. "As I was saying, you know this Asian demon?"

Mulan rolled her eyes again. This was stupid.

The boy gulped. "Y-yeah…"

Jim grinned and nodded. "Notice anything different about her?"

The boy glanced at Mulan once more, then quickly looked down. "S-she…she has shorter…"

"Flower!" Some other boy called out to them, looking straight at the fidgeting boy, who instantly had a look of relief on his face.

Oh yeah, his name was Flower.

Somehow, Mulan preferred Meadow. Flower was just…weird. Especially for a guy.

"I-I've got to go," he muttered quickly, then ran off to meet his friend.

"No, no, no!" Jim wailed. "He was about to say it. He was just about to prove that as always, I'm right and you're dead wrong, then his friend had to ruin it all! Honestly, couldn't he have just waited five more seconds before calling his name – wait a minute…" Jim had started off whining and complaining, but then instantly stopped as a thought occurred to him. "His name is _Flower_? What kinda name is that?"

Mulan sighed. "Don't you dare make fun of his name, Hawk."

He glared at her. "It's _Hawkins_ , and unlike you, I actually have respect for people with weird names. But seriously, he walks around school and allows people to call him that? I definitely would've changed my name, that's for sure."

Mulan only shook her head and continued her walk to the Dining Hall.

It was late in the Evening and pretty much every student of WDA had arrived. The only ones missing were the one that had taken the train to Disney Village. And they were set to arrive any time soon, anyway.

The people that had arrived a bit early – like Jim and herself – had helped arrange the school Auditorium. Now, it was almost time for dinner, and pretty much everyone was trekking to the Dining Hall from the Auditorium.

Her best friend, Ariel Trident, had called her only a few minutes ago to inform her that she and the others that had taken the train would be arriving soon. And after the phone call ended, Jim and Mulan had started an argument on whether Ariel was going to notice something different about Mulan or not.

Jim had stated that there was no way she wouldn't notice because it _was_ obvious. Even the guy with the weird name noticed it, and Mulan was fairly sure that everyone else at school – well, the ones that knew her, at least – noticed the difference. But Mulan knew her best friend, and she was positive that Ariel would not notice a thing. Not today, at least.

Jim followed her to the Hall and they managed to finish the short walk in silence, which Mulan was more than thankful for. Normally, she wouldn't have minded having a small banter with him – it was pretty much their thing – but at the moment, she did not feel like talking. The only thing she wanted to do was see Ariel, eat dinner, then sleep.

They got to the Dining Hall not long after, and found it the same as always. The same four long and rectangular mahogany tables for the different years; the same teacher's quarters on the right with smaller circular tables; the same large golden chandeliers that glistened from the ceilings; and Mulan's personal favorite, the floor-length windows, showing off the trees and grassy paths on campus with the walls of the Academy shining in the distance.

Jim and Mulan immediately walked over to the table meant for the Sophomores and sat down at the edge, close to the doors of the Hall.

"Feels so weird to be sitting here and not to the right like last year," Jim commented as he took a seat beside Mulan.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Having to sit right beside the teachers was torture. I'm glad that's over."

Jim snorted. "What torture? You were never on time for both breakfast and dinner. None of us were."

Mulan smiled. That was true. The time she and her friends usually entered the Hall, was the time that most of the others were leaving. And pretty much none of the teachers stayed behind for long. Unless they were on Hall Duty or something.

"I know," she said. "But it was always annoying when some of those teachers gave us that weird look for entering late. And it doesn't help when you know that they're right behind you, judging you with their eyes."

"Yeah, I remember that," Jim grinned. "The worst was Mr. Yu though. I swear that guy had it in for you."

That made both of them laugh. They continued chatting and making jokes and a few insults toward each other here and there – all playful, of course – when suddenly, a rush of students started entering the Hall, which only meant one thing.

The train students had arrived.

 _They're here_ , Mulan thought as she stood up immediately, her eyes scanning the sea of students, hoping to catch a glimpse of her friend.

"You see her?" Jim asked from behind her, his eyes also scanning the room.

"No…" Mulan answered, squinting at the door. "But it shouldn't be hard to spot her."

That was when she saw it. A head full of bright red hair that stood out in the crowd.

"There she is! I see her!" Mulan exclaimed. Without hesitation, she quickly sprinted from where she was standing, and headed for the door, with Jim right behind her.

"Ariel! Over here!" he shouted, trying to get his volume above the noise in the room.

The redhead girl stopped the conversation she was having with two of her sisters and turned around at the sound of her name. She beamed when she saw them and gave a little wave goodbye to the two girls, before running towards her friends.

"Mulan!" the girl squealed as she wrapped her arms around the Chinese girl. "Gosh, I missed you so much!" She looked over Mulan's shoulder to find Jim standing there, beaming at her. Without any warning, Ariel extended her arm and dragged Jim into the hug.

Jim chuckled and wrapped his arms around both girls. "It's good to see you, Ariel."

"Yeah," Mulan muttered into the redhead's hair. "You have no idea what it was like being stuck with Hawk alone for two whole months."

Jim frowned and shoved Mulan out of the embrace, pulling Ariel closer to himself in the process. "Don't listen to her, Ariel. She was the one being a total pain, as usual."

Mulan rolled her eyes and violently elbowed Jim in the ribs, making him let go of Ariel as he groaned and held tightly unto his sides.

"See what I mean? She just dislocated my bones!" he exclaimed.

Mulan ignored him and turned to Ariel. "So, how was your summer?"

Before Ariel could answer, Jim spoke again. "Don't you dare ignore me!" he glared at Mulan. "Ariel save me!" then he fell to the floor and groaned in pain – all fake, of course. "I think I'm having an internal bleeding. Do something!" And he continued rolling on the floor, whining and complaining of how Mulan should go to jail for attempted murder.

The said Chinese girl just rolled her eyes and gave him an unimpressed look. "Be a man, Hawk."

Ariel just giggled, finding the entire situation funny. "Stop being such a drama queen, Jim. That's my thing." Then she bent down and helped him up.

"I guess you're rubbing off on me, then," he grinned, giving her a side hug.

Ariel grinned back and grabbed Mulan, initiating another group hug between them.

Which brought out a groan from both Mulan and Jim.

"Ariel, I missed you and all, but having this much physical contact with Jim is bound to give me a disease."

"And being this close to Mulan is definitely lowering my IQ."

"Wow, I'm impressed. I didn't think your IQ could get any lower."

"Haha funny. Remind me, who has a perfect GPA between us?"

"Jimbo the nerd-o, of course."

"Call me whatever you want. It still proves that I'm smarter than you."

"At least I don't have a ridiculous hairstyle."

Ariel smiled as she hugged her best friends, squeezing them tighter. Two months away from them was way too long. The next summer vacations, all three of them were definitely going to spend time together. "I missed you guys," she smiled.

Mulan and Jim stopped their little banter and grinned at the redhead. "We missed you, too," they said in unison.

They stayed like that for a while before Jim remembered something, smirking at Mulan. "Speaking of _hairstyles_ …"

Mulan glared at him. "Don't. You. _Dare_."

"I'm actually quite disappointed," he answered, still smirking. "I could've sworn Ariel would've noticed by now."

Ariel frowned and let go of the two of them. "Noticed what?"

Jim smirked even wider. "Well, Mulan over here–"

Mulan interrupted him, grabbing the boy by the collar of his shirt, bringing his face closer to hers. " _Don't_ ," she said darkly.

He just grinned down at her. "You do know that I'm at least six inches taller than you, right?"

She scowled. "Doesn't mean I can't kick your ass."

His expression didn't change. Instead they stared at each other, her eyes filled with anger and threat, and his filled with complete amusement.

Ariel just stared at both of them, not surprised in any way. She just crossed her arms and grinned at them. How exactly did these two survive two months without killing each other?

Jim continued smiling at the short Asian girl. "I'm gonna do it."

"Not if you want to live," she growled.

Not even a bit scared, Jim just clicked his tongued and turned his head to face Ariel, the collar of his T-shirt still balled into Mulan's fist. "Well, Ariel, over the summer Mulan found it fitting to cut her–"

That's when Mulan did it.

Right when Jim was about to tell Ariel, she shut him up.

In a really painful way.

And it really wasn't her fault. After all, she _did_ warn him.

He was just being the usual bone-head he was and refused to listen.

So, what did she do exactly?

She simply kicked him.

…Where the place does not shine.

Yeah, _that_.

In other words, _ouch_.

Jim grimaced. Clutching his…front…he fell to the ground, withering in pain. For real this time.

"Y-You…" he sputtered, then groaned, then yelled, then screamed…

Mulan just stood, hovering above him, biting her lip to stop herself from laughing.

Ariel, however, stood there in shock, mouth wide open.

Mulan just…

She actually…kicked Jim in the…

She had seen it countless of times in bad TV shows, but seeing it in real-life, _right_ _in front_ of _her_ , and involving her two best friends no less, was just…just…

 _Hilarious_!

Her face slowly changed from shock to impressed to downright amused. Then she burst out laughing. "You just…and you are…I can't believe you actually…oh my god!" she giggled, clutching her stomach with tears at the corners of her eyes.

Mulan smirked at Ariel's reaction, surprised that her work was appreciated, but happy about the outcome nonetheless.

Jim stared at his best friend in disbelief, utterly offended that his pain caused her to laugh this much. Honestly, he might not be able to reproduce again and she just stood there, hackling, as if watching him moaning on the floor was the funniest thing in the world. That was just mean.

But Ariel continued laughing. Mulan and Jim were probably the best friends ever.

It was decided. There was definitely no way she was going to be separated from these two for two months ever again.

Her laughter decreased as the two started having yet another argument, and she just smiled warmly at them.

She really did miss these two idiots.

* * *

The Dining Hall was, in one word, _chaotic_.

Students ranging from the teensy little Freshmen to the loud and rebellious Seniors, were scattered around the large room, laughing, screaming, and were just being disorderly in general.

There were even two Senior boys that were having a fight right in the middle of the Hall, throwing kicks and punches in each other's direction. Why they were fighting, no one knew. But no one even made attempts to stop them either.

Some simply ignored them, while a few others watched with wide eyes, hoping that they would just stop their violent display, and that none of them got severely injured – this one consisted majorly of the Freshmen.

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the students – mainly the males, to be honest – were simply on their feet, surrounding the two boys, and were chanting something along the lines of "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

It was madness, to say the very least.

And kind of expected.

Private school students or not, they _were_ teenagers. And this was exactly what happened when said teenagers were left alone unsupervised.

Speaking of which, where were the teachers, anyway?

Tiana Jones glanced at her wristwatch. For the past three years she had been going to Walt Disney Academy, they were always halfway through Dinner by this time. Now, they hadn't even caught sight of any of the staff members of the school.

Tiana sighed as she watched the boys wrestling each other with bored eyes. She recognized one of them as Trent Bones, though he usually went by the name _Tramp_. The reasons behind such a nickname was a mystery to her, and to be quite honest, she wasn't really interested to find out. The other guy was Gaston, and Tiana immediately rolled her eyes. Of course Gaston was involved.

She didn't know what would cause them to fight like this, but considering they were teenage boys, she figured it was over something incredibly stupid. Maybe one of them stole the other's girlfriend or something.

Deciding to just ignore them, Tiana rested her head in her arms on the table.

Immediately her head was in her arms, she gave a relaxed sigh.

 _Mhm…this feels nice_.

Maybe she should just use this opportunity to catch up on her sleep. She had barely gotten four hours of sleep the previous night, after all.

Mixed with work and helping Aladdin pack his suitcase – even though she had been reminding him to do that every day since last week – she could only get such a small amount of sleep as she had woken up at exactly 6:00 am that morning.

She still blamed Aladdin.

 **xXx**

 _The Previous Day, Thursday Night…_

Tiana had just gotten home from a long day of work. She had worked nightshifts at one of the local restaurants and wanted nothing more than to just lay down and sleep on her soft, warm bed. Sadly, the minute she laid down, her eyes drifted off to where her suitcases were tucked away in the corner of her room.

She then thought of her two best friends, Aladdin and Flynn, knowing full well that those two had probably not even started packing yet. Against her own free will, she called Aladdin, only to find out that she was correct. Imagine how she felt when she had told him to stop what he was doing and start packing, only for him to tell her that he couldn't because he was watching a stupid sports game that were, in his words, 'the ultimate game of the season.'

And as if that wasn't bad enough, the Arabian teen had had the audacity to say 'See you soon', right before he hung up.

 _See you soon?_ Tiana thought angrily as she snuggled back into her bed. What made him think she was going to do anything about his irresponsibility? It was definitely not her fault that he couldn't sort out his priorities, and there was no way she was going to help him out of this mess.

Nope.

She decided that she was just going to sleep and relax and let him worry about his own problems for once.

Yeah…

She couldn't do it.

Tiana groaned again as she got off her bed – her very _warm_ and _comfortable_ bed – and headed downstairs. She put on her boots and her worn-out coat before heading outside to the direction of her lazy best friend's house.

Stupid Aladdin.

So there she was, walking in the middle of the night in her nightgown, coat and boots, on her way to Aladdin's house. She was thankful that her mother was already fast asleep. She wouldn't have wanted to start explaining to her as to why exactly she needed to visit a friend at this hour. Besides, it helped a great deal that they were neighbors.

She had barely walked three minutes when she reached the Arabian boy's house. She used the key that was usually kept under a small plant pot on the front porch to unlock the door and got in.

The annoying teenage boy hadn't even looked a bit surprised to find her there. Instead, he kept his eyes glued to the box T.V. and said casually, "What took you so long? I thought you would have been here forty-five seconds ago."

It took everything in Tiana's willpower to not immediately pounce on him and punch the smugness right out of him.

 _What took her so long_? What was she? His _maid_? Or servant?

She made sure to tell him this, ranting on how he was so irresponsible that he always had to wait for her to do things like this for him. He hadn't even helped her when she headed straight for his room and started packing his own suitcase for him. He had only claimed that he wasn't sure whether Flynn was also watching the stupid game and that he had to be the good friend he was and update him on the statistics the next day.

Ugh. Such morons they were, really.

Tiana had spent practically her whole life with them and she still didn't get the thrill of watching such sports. It was actually quite boring, to be honest. And a major time-waster. If she really wanted to spend ninety minutes of her time doing something totally irrelevant or unproductive, she would just watch some of the Rom-com movies her female best friend, Lottie, was addicted to. At least those ones were somewhat entertaining, despite being entirely cliché.

Sports, on the other hand, was just watching a bunch of guys in ridiculous uniforms, running around the field or court or whatever else they used, doing things that Tiana was sure she would never understand.

She had even tried to watch Soccer with them, one day in the eighth grade, and they had been kind enough to try and explain to her what each of the players' job was and the different terminologies they used. But after explaining a goal-keeper, defendant and something called a penalty-kick – all of which were words Tiana had heard on certain occasions but never really knew the meaning – Tiana quickly got bored, left them alone and went to study. Which was the main reason they had all gathered in Aladdin's house that afternoon in the first place.

Long story short, she didn't like sports. And she never would.

But her best friends seemed to have a sick obsession with it, so she usually left them alone.

While she was helping Aladdin with his suitcase that…evening? Night? Early morning?... Tiana silently prayed that Flynn had at least gotten started on his packing. But since Aladdin had blatantly ignored the need to pack – and he was clearly more responsible than Flynn was in any way – she honestly doubted Flynn even knew _where_ his suitcase was.

And she was right.

 _The next day, Friday Morning…_

After waking up way too early that Friday, and doing her chores along with going Grocery shopping and helping a few of her neighbors, Tiana had groggily walked to Genie's restaurant to help him open up shop. That was when she spotted Flynn, running through the streets. Then she rolled her eyes. It had been way too early in the morning for any of Flynn's shenanigans. She had half-expected to see Aladdin with him, but was surprised to find out that Flynn was running alone. And was being chased by the Stabbington Brothers, no less.

She found her idiot of a best friend hiding behind a dumpster, holding the stolen necklace that had been all over the news the previous day. Then cue her being dragged along the streets by Flynn as they were both chased by the dangerous looking twins.

Then a whole lot of problem arose with Tiana, Genie and Aladdin asking why exactly Flynn had the necklace with him and what he had wanted to do with the money – which still needed to be explained, by the way. There was no way Tiana was easily going to forget about something that bad.

Then she and Genie had left for Mrs. Goodwill's shop to return the necklace, and they left the woman alone to call the police and decide what she wanted to happen to the Stabbingtons'.

And when they got back to the restaurant, they had only found the place in the same mess it was before they had left, meaning the two idiots had pretty much done nothing in the thirty minutes she and Genie were gone. And Tiana had not been surprised. Not one bit.

Instead, they had found the two boys sitting on one of the tables, with Aladdin explaining to Flynn what had happened in the blasted game the previous night, and Flynn listening intently, a wide grin on his face, like Aladdin was telling him that he had won the lottery or something.

Apparently, Genie was not surprised by the boys' behavior either, as he just shook his head and started wiping the tables. Tiana was about to help him when the talk of the sports' game reminded her of whether Flynn had remembered to pack the previous night.

The brown-haired boy simply stared at her for no less than thirty seconds, before grimacing. "Wait…we're leaving today?"

Tiana could only roll her eyes and without even replying, she had dragged Flynn by his ear out of the restaurant, with Flynn wailing and huffing as he pleaded for Aladdin to come save him from the evil witch – which Tiana had only rolled her eyes to. _Moron_ – and the said Arabian had only laughed his butt off, rolling on the floor, which made Flynn wail even more.

Fast forward to a couple of hours later, and Tiana had practically spent the entire day helping Flynn pack _his_ suitcases – with most of the hours spent on them actually looking for the damn suitcases.

Apparently, he did lose them and had no idea where he had kept them.

Honestly, those two were such children.

 **xXx**

In a way, Tiana guessed it was both Aladdin and Flynn's fault she hadn't gotten enough sleep.

Even after helping Flynn with his suitcase, and all three of them arriving at the Academy a few hours later, Tiana hadn't as much as even rested for a bit.

They had been among the first to enter the Auditorium that evening, so they had helped in the decorations. Flynn and Aladdin weren't any help in that aspect either, and they were goofing off most of the time – Flynn had even managed to break his nose and a stapler at some point…what…? Tiana decided she didn't even want to know.

So that left Tiana into doing all the work. _Again_.

Maybe that was why they hardly did anything for themselves.

They usually left it to Tiana to 'Save the day'. And sadly, she always did.

And they didn't even as much as utter a little 'thank you' most of the time.

Tiana faintly wondered why she was still friends with them. She definitely could do a lot better than spending her precious time with those two lazy sloths that never cared for anything important.

Even Lottie had constantly told her that she usually 'baby-ed' them too much. And now that Tiana thought about it, Lottie was right.

If not for her, those two would probably not have done one single homework since they got into the school, and wouldn't have been able to maintain they're scholarship this long.

In fact, Tiana was almost certain that if not for her constantly helping them with one assignment or the other, or covering for them on the numerous occasions they skipped school, or even pleading with the Principal for them whenever they pulled off some stupid prank, they wouldn't have lasted two weeks in the school and probably would have been expelled a long time ago.

Tiana sighed as she rubbed her hands on her face tiredly.

One day though, she wouldn't be there to help them or bail them out whenever they needed her. She was just going to leave them alone and let them suffer all the consequences for all the stupid things they did.

Suddenly, there was a loud 'CRASH' from the other side of the Hall, and all heads turned to the direction of the sound.

Unsurprisingly, Flynn and Aladdin were standing right there. Right beside them, splattered on the floor, were multiple broken pieces from what Tiana suspected were from the giant ceramic decoration that was usually placed in the exact corner they were standing in.

Tiana rolled her eyes. They had barely even started school and those two were already causing trouble.

She caught the both of them giving her pleading looks, which only made her groan.

Remember when she said that one day, she was going to leave them alone and let them suffer the consequences of their actions?

Yeah…

Sadly, that day was not today.

Tiana grunted, stood up and walked towards them, glaring at the duo in the process.

For some reason, she loved these two idiots too much to leave them alone.

* * *

"You seriously can't notice anything different about Mulan?" Jim asked the minute the Asian girl left their group to get a couple of snacks for them from the nearby vending machine.

Ariel looked back at her best friend, only to find the dark-haired girl standing on a short cue in front of the only vending machine in the Dining Hall. Apparently, Ariel and her friends weren't the only ones that were hungry and in desperate need of some food.

Honestly, where the heck were all the teachers?

Ariel turned back to face her male best friend with a slight frown on her face. "No, she looks the same to me."

Jim sighed. "Man, this isn't any fun. And I thought for sure you would've noticed something by now."

Ariel's frown deepened as she turned back to face Mulan.

For the past half hour, in between laughing and catching up, Mulan and Jim had been constantly fighting over something that was apparently different about Mulan; with the Chinese girl threatening to harm Jim if he said a word about it, and Jim simply being disappointed that Ariel hadn't figured out something that was supposedly very obvious.

But Ariel just hadn't noticed anything. Mulan had looked perfectly the same in her eyes.

She heard Jim groan again and tore her eyes away from Mulan. "Is she taller?" she asked. "Or do you think she's paler than usual?"

Jim scoffed. "Taller? Please. Mulan's gonna remain a dwarf for the rest of her life."

"Dwarf or not, I can still manage to get you on your knees, groaning in pain."

Ariel smiled as she saw Mulan returning with three bags of chips in her arms, smirking at Jim.

The boy just scowled. "You kicked me in the balls. That should be against the law."

"Well unfortunately for you, it isn't," Mulan smiled, sitting down beside Ariel. "Which just proves once again, how awesome females are."

The moment her best friend sat down, Ariel quickly snatched one of the bags from her grasp, tearing it open and wolfing down its contents.

What? She's starving, okay?

"I swear this world is just messed up," Jim said, taking his own share of the chips – much more calmly than Ariel had, mind you. "Girls can hit guys and go away scot-free, yet it's suddenly a crime when it's the other way around."

"Well what do you expect?" Mulan asked him. "Guys shouldn't hit girls."

"Bull," he grumbled, miserably munching on his chips. "Yet you chicks will be whining about equal rights."

Still smirking, Mulan rolled her eyes and turned to face the mute redhead. "Calm down, Ariel," she said, staring with wide eyes as her friend continued taking handfuls of chips, stuffing them into her mouth.

Jim looked up and grinned at the sight. "You must be really hungry, huh?"

Ariel swallowed and licked her fingers, giving them an indifferent look. "Duh, considering that the only snack I had to sustain me throughout the train ride here was a packet of gummy bears…that I shared with two of my sisters…and Flounder…and basically everyone in my compartment and the next."

Jim laughed. "So two compartments shared just one packet of gummy bears?"

Ariel frowned. "Three, and yes."

It was Mulan's turn to laugh. "How many gummy bears did you end up eating?"

"Two. Both mint flavored."

"But you hate mint," Mulan pointed out.

"And I hate mint!" Ariel exclaimed only a second later, throwing her arms up in the air.

"Oh wow!" Jim cackled. "I can't even count the number of times I've eaten today. You know what, take my chips, and Mulan's. In fact, I'm giving you the entire vending machine. Mulan, give me twenty quarters."

Mulan only raised an eyebrow at him. "You seriously think there'll still be up to twenty bags in there?" she asked, nodding in the direction of the machine, where the queue seemed to have increased in length.

"Oh," Jim said in a disappointed tone. "Guess you'll have to wait until the teachers show up," he glanced at Ariel, only to find her practically licking the insides of her already empty bag.

Then he bent down in laughter again, clutching his stomach, as if watching Ariel acting like a starving kid that hadn't eaten in weeks was the funniest thing in the world.

"Really, Ariel?" Mulan smirked at her. "Didn't you eat breakfast this morning?"

"Well…" Ariel started, smiling sheepishly. "I wasn't hungry at the time…so…"

"Ariel!" Mulan scolded. "Why wouldn't you eat breakfast and only take one packet of gummy bears with you on the train!"

"Hey, in my defense, I hadn't thought everyone would actually want to share it with me. And I had expected us to have at least started dinner by now."

"True, the teachers are late this year," Jim said, when he stopped laughing and settled down in his seat.

"Still doesn't give you an excuse for not eating anything this morning," Mulan crossed her arms.

"Sorry…" Ariel said again, hungrily eyeing Mulan's own – and still very full – bag of chips.

The dark-haired girl just rolled her eyes. "Take it."

Ariel squealed and gave Mulan a quick hug, before diving into the bag.

Both her friends laughed.

"Next time you're hungry," Jim spoke up. "Better tell us so we'll bring some food for you."

"Next time? Nonsense." Mulan scoffed and turned to Ariel. "Starting next year, you'll be spending the summer with us until we graduate. No way am I letting you have only two gummy bears for another day."

Ariel smiled at them. "Thanks guys."

Mulan smiled back but Jim didn't, instead, staring intently at her.

Ariel squirmed under his gaze. "Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?"

He chuckled. "Lots. You should really watch the way you eat. I expect this sort of animal behavior from Mulan, and I wouldn't want that from you."

Mulan smacked him in the head in reply, and he stuck his tongue at her.

"Don't worry Jim," Ariel assured him. "My eating habit would never get as bad as Mulan's."

"You too? Come on, I'm not that bad," Mulan huffed.

"Yes, you are," they both answered immediately which only made Mulan grumble and cross her arms over her chest.

They ate in silence for a few minutes until Jim spoke up. "I can't take this anymore. Mulan, I'm gonna do it."

Ariel gave him a puzzled look. "Do what?"

He didn't answer but instead, looked directly at Mulan, who quickly understood.

"No."

"I will."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Just how long are you planning on keeping this a secret from her."

"Until she figures it out herself, which hopefully, will be never."

"She's gonna find out at some point."

"Which won't be today."

Ariel watched them, head moving back and forth, from Mulan to Jim then back to Mulan again. At first, she was annoyed, wondering when they were going to stop this nonsense already. Then she started wondering.

What big secret was there about Mulan that was apparently so obvious, yet not obvious enough for her to figure it out?

And why was Mulan so intent on keeping it a secret from her?

And why exactly was Mulan okay with Jim knowing this unknown secret, and not her?

Her best friend. Best friend since the third grade, the year Mulan moved to their beloved Fantasia from China.

They hadn't even met Jim until the previous year, their Freshman year at Walt Disney Academy.

So, the fact that Mulan was so intent on keeping this a secret from her, yet had no trouble whatsoever with Jim knowing about it, well that…that kind of hurt.

"Mulan," she spoke up, stopping the argument Mulan and Jim were currently having. "Why don't you want to tell me?"

Mulan quickly turned to her, her gaze first surprised, then guilty. "It's really nothing. Jim is just making a big deal out of nothing."

"Then, if it's really nothing, why keep it a secret?" Ariel asked.

Mulan shook her head vigorously. "It's not a secret, Ariel. Not at all. I'm pretty sure the entire school knows, in fact."

Ariel's eyes widened. "The entire school knows but me?"

"In Mulan's defense," Jim said. "You would have known about it too. You just don't seem to have noticed it yet, for some reason. And it so clearly obvious, how have you not figured it out yet, anyway?"

Ariel turned back to face Mulan. She really didn't notice anything different about Mulan. Her skin was pale as usual, and her large brown eyes in the same almond shape it had been since the first day they had met. And her hair, so dark and beautiful, it always seemed to shape her pretty round face.

Everything pretty much looked the same so she had no idea what Jim was talking abou–

Wait a minute.

Her hair…something about it was… _different_ …

She just couldn't place what the difference was.

Mulan sighed. "Don't beat yourself up about it, Ariel. It's really not importa–"

"Your hair," Ariel whispered, cutting her off.

Mulan stiffened, and Jim was practically bouncing in his seat.

 _Yes!_ he thought victoriously. _She finally figured it out!_

Mulan bit her lip. "What about my hair?" she asked carefully.

"It looks…" Ariel started. "…different."

Jim let out a frustrated groan while Mulan relaxed slightly. Although, Mulan was partly frustrated herself. She had expected Ariel not to notice the difference right away, but how had she not figured this out yet? It was pretty obvious, after all.

"Am I right?" Ariel asked. "Does it have to do with your hair?" Then she looked doubtful. "But I can't really notice anything that much different about it. Are you using a different shampoo? I noticed your hair was a bit darker, but then again, that could just be me. The color of your hair looks the same so it must be something else. Is it something else? I can't put my finger on whatever it is that is different but–"

"She cut it! _Okay_?! _She cut her hair_! It used to be super long, and not it's crazy short! Why? Because she went to a Salon and _freaking_ _cut_ the _stupid_ _hair_!" Jim all but yelled.

Really, though, how had she not noticed that yet? God, that had been so obvious. He honestly couldn't believe that he had to spell it out to her. Seriously! Ariel had got to be the most oblivious person on the planet.

But he didn't regret what he did. Sure, Mulan would most likely murder him later for spilling the beans, but he didn't care. He was glad to finally get that out of his system.

After Jim's rant, it took a while for Ariel to fully comprehend what he had said. Then she blinked.

Did he just say Mulan had…?

Had Mulan really…?

She glanced back at Mulan, only to find her glaring daggers at Jim.

Then she finally noticed it.

Mulan's hair…

Mulan's long, dark and beautiful hair.

The same hair Ariel was jealous of when they had met in the third grade because Mulan had this beautiful Asian-gifted hair, while hers was a short mess at the time.

It was because of Mulan that Ariel had been determined to grow her hair out too. It hadn't been until the previous year that her goal had been accomplished and she and Mulan finally had hair of the same length.

Now she had cut it.

Not just cut it, she had cut it _short_.

So short that the tips of her raven locks barely brushed her chin, not even reaching the base of her neck.

Her beautiful, long, black hair. Gone.

Mulan felt as her best friend watched her intently, hoping against all hope that Ariel still hadn't understood what Jim had said. She admitted that she was a bit annoyed when Ariel had shown no signs of figuring it out, but right now, she wanted nothing more than for Ariel to have temporarily lost the ability to hear during Jim's rant.

 _Jim_.

She was definitely going to deal with that rat later. No wonder he always had his hair styled into that ridiculous 'rattail' hairstyle. It fit him perfectly.

"You…" Ariel's small voice snapped Mulan out of her thoughts and she turned her gaze to her redhead best friend.

Then she gulped.

Ariel was going to go ballistic. Just like she always did. That was the main reason why Mulan hadn't wanted Ariel to find out in the first place.

The redhead seemed to take things way too seriously, especially the smallest of things. It was even worse when said things were subjects that were very important to her. Ariel was the kind of person that would give you an unimpressed look if you sprained an ankle and simply tell you to 'walk it off'; then would go completely hysterical if you even as much as cracked a fingernail, asking you whether it hurt.

And Ariel had always been a lover of hair, especially long ones – reasons were still unknown to Mulan, but she highly doubted it would make any sense, anyway – so she had expected the worst possible reaction from Ariel.

Which she didn't feel like going through, right now. Once Ariel started, there was no stopping her. Not until she was satisfied.

Which brought her back to: she was definitely going to dismember Jim later.

"You…" Ariel stated again. "You cut… _you cut your hair_?!"

Mulan winced. _Here we go._

"How could you _cut your hair_ , Mulan! And without even _asking_ me! Why didn't you tell me you _wanted_ to do it? _When_ exactly did you do it?! You were blessed with such _beautiful_ and _long_ hair and you just went ahead and threw all that way?! When exactly were you going to tell me about this? And _why in the world_ did you do it in the first place?! _Honestly_ …!" Ariel all but ranted, but Mulan eventually tuned her out, rolling in her eyes.

Well, she had expected this. Her only prayer right now was that the teachers would show up soon. That seemed to be the only available way for Ariel to stop her ranting.

Then she saw Jim behind Ariel, laughing and hackling while clutching his stomach, tears at the corners of his eyes. Mulan knew this was what he had been waiting for all evening. She watched him as he continued laughing, apparently enjoying the little speech Ariel was still giving her.

He was such a moron.

Seriously, had she mentioned how she was going to kill him later, and throw him to the lions as food?

Because she was really going to do that. And she was going to enjoy every minute of it. The mere thought of that made her smile, momentarily forgetting that Ariel was still yelling at her.

"Are you actually _smiling_ , Mulan?! Is all this _funny_ to you? Do you know how many people would have wished to have hair like yours, only for you to throw all that away, and you think it's _funny_?! Do you have any idea how _ungrateful_ you're being right now?!"

Yep. She was definitely going to kill Jim later.

If she survived Ariel first, that is.

* * *

"Man, must be good to have sisters to cook food for you like this," Bambi Forrest said, as he eyed the food containers one of his best friends, Thumper Gould, brought out of his knapsack.

"Nah, it gets really frustrating at times," Thumper grunted. "Sometimes they just baby me, which I find demeaning 'cause I'm _two years_ older than the lot of them."

"Please. Having four younger sisters, despite them being quadruplets, is way more fun than being an only child," Bambi commented and took a container filled with fruits. "Believe me."

"So ungrateful," Thumper mumbled. "I'd take being an only child over having obnoxious sisters _any day_. At least I won't have to worry about anyone barging into my room whenever they feel like it."

Flower Baerg rolled his eyes at their argument. "Guys, don't start this again, please," then he too eyed the food containers Thumper brought with him. "But…do you think we should start eating now?"

Both boys turned around to face him. "Oh, don't be such a worry-wort," Bambi said. "We've been waiting for _literally_ hours. I doubt the teachers are coming soon."

"Yeah," Thumper agreed. "Besides, I'm _starving_. I'm surprised I even waited this long before we started eating."

"But…" Flower started. "But what if the teachers come right after we finished eating? Then we'd be too full to eat the actual dinner."

"Look, no one's forcing you to eat," Thumper said. "If you don't want to, you don't have to. And I doubt the teachers are coming anytime soon. If they haven't shown up yet, I bet they wouldn't come until thirty minutes later. Forty-five tops. What do you think, Bambi?"

The brown-haired boy didn't answer.

"Bambi?" Flower asked as both he and Thumper turned to face their third friend.

They found him staring at something with a goofy grin and followed the direction of his eyes to see what he was looking at.

"Oh," Flower said while Thumper just groaned.

"Ugh, again?" the young sophomore asked, annoyed.

Flower just chuckled. "Leave him be, Thumper. He's in _love_."

Thumper scoffed. "Love my butt. More like obsessed," then he smacked Bambi in the arm. "Hey, Bambi, wake up."

The boy didn't seem to hear him as he only continued staring, which just made Thumper scrunch up his face in disgust. He rolled his eyes at his lovesick best friend and rose his right hand. "Yo, Faline!" he shouted across the room to a girl with light brown hair, talking with a few of her friends.

The girl turned around at the sound of her name and smiled and waved in their direction.

The sudden exchange finally made Bambi snap out of dreamland as he turned to glare at his best friend. "Dude! What was that for?"

"No need to shout, man. You know I have sensitive ears," Thumper frowned. "Oh, and you're welcome, by the way."

"Welcome? Why should I be–"

"Hello guys," a female voice said. "Hey Bambi."

The said teen turned around, looking flustered. "Uh…h-hey Faline…"

"Hi Faline," Flower smiled at her.

She smiled back and sat down beside him. "What are you guys up to?" she asked them casually, though Thumper could see her glancing at his containers of food at the corner of her eye. Man, this was officially the worst Back to School Dinner ever.

He was honestly very glad that his sisters had persisted on cooking something for him that morning. He didn't even want to know how he'd be able to survive if not for them. Seriously, it was like a few minutes past eight and they hadn't even started eating yet!

"We're about to eat," Thumper told her. "Want to join us?"

He saw her face brighten up. "If you would have me, thanks."

Thumper finally finished bringing out his food containers. "Okay, we have fruits, pork chops, mashed potatoes, chicken, dumplings, bacon, ham sandwiches and…eww… _salad_? You can have that one Flower."

Flower rolled his eyes but collected the salad container without complaints.

Bambi and Faline both reached for the dumpling container at the same time, making their hands brush against each other by mistake. They both blushed and retrieved their hands.

Thumper scoffed at them. _Dorks_.

He was about to reach for the container with mashed potatoes, when he heard a voice.

"Well, well," the voice sneered. "What do we have here?"

"Get lost, Ronno," Bambi glared at the newcomer.

"Like I came here to see you," Ronno glared back, then turned to face Faline. "Hey there, sweet-cheeks."

Faline smiled weakly. "Hi Ronno."

Ronno eyed the food on the table hungrily. "Are you sure you're supposed to be eating?"

"Why? Want to join us?" Thumper asked. "'Cause if you're waiting for an invitation, forget it. You ain't getting any."

"Like I want to," Ronno frowned. "I meant, what if the teachers come soon?"

"Yeah guys," Flower said. "I really don't think we should be eating right now."

"I've already told you, if you don't want to eat, you don't have to," Thumper rolled his eyes. "I happen to be starving, and I'm going to gobble my food up. You're all welcome to join me – except you, Ronno."

Ronno huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, licking his lips absentmindedly. Then he turned to leave.

"Why don't we just invite Ronno to eat with us?" Bambi whispered to Thumper.

"Are you crazy? No way!" Thumper whispered back.

"But he _is_ hungry. It would be the nice thing to do," Flower joined in.

"If that's the excuse you're using, then why don't we just invite the entire school to eat with us?!" Thumper bellowed, then frowned when he saw the smile on his friend's face. "No Flower. We're not gonna invite the entire school to eat seven small plastic containers of food with us!"

"It's eight," Faline corrected. "And we're not asking to invite the entire school, just Ronno."

Thumper turned to Bambi. "You know I'm just doing this for you. That slime-ball has been bullying you since _grade school_ and you want him to eat with us?"

Bambi shrugged. "Well, we've all been neighbors for years, it's the nice thing to do."

"My friends are such dorks," Thumper groaned. " _Fine_. Ronno you can–"

Before he could even finish his sentence, Ronno was already seated at the table, beside Faline. "Thanks, man," he said and was already stretching his arm to take the sandwich container when Thumper stopped him.

"No, dude. My food, my rules," he said and passed Ronno a banana.

Ronno pouted and took it, while the other three at the table glared at Thumper.

"Ugh, I was only kidding," Thumper said with an eye-roll. "Feel free to eat whatever you want."

Immediately, Ronno dumped the banana and started eating, with the rest joining him only a few seconds later.

They ate in silence, with all of them relishing in the wonderful taste of food that they had been deprived from for _hours_. They noticed a few of their schoolmates staring hungrily in their direction but they ignored it all.

Fifteen minutes passed and they were all done with eating.

 _"_ _Oh, man, that was awesome," Bambi sighed, and leaned his head backwards._

"I second that," Ronno agreed, closing his eyes in contentment.

Faline shook her head. "Aren't you guys exaggerating a bit? It was just a meal, after all."

"Says the girl who was practically licking the dumplings container," Bambi nudged her playfully.

Faline blushed. "What? You have to admit that Thumper's sisters are amazing cooks."

Thumper chuckled. "Don't let them hear you, or it'll get in their heads."

Bambi laughed and turned to the boy that hadn't spoken a word. "What's wrong, Flower?"

"I'm. So. _Full_ ," the teen with the odd hair color groaned, making the rest laugh.

"Same," Thumper agreed. "I don't think I'll be able to eat anything for another hour."

"I don't think I'll be able to _move_ for another hour," Ronno said.

"Well," Bambi said. "Let's just hope the teachers won't show up until a few more–"

As the cruelty of fate would have it, the doors of the Dining Hall swung open at that exact moment.

All five of the sophomores looked at the doors in horror.

"Oh no," Faline whispered.

"Please no," Thumper added.

And in walked Principal Mickey and the rest of the staff members following suit.

The small group of friends stared at the teachers with wide eyes as the adults walked in slowly, as if they hadn't just arrived two hours late.

While the rest of the students in the Hall were practically cheering at the teacher's presence, the five of them looked anything but happy.

Bambi and Ronno groaned, Faline put her head in her hands, and Thumper practically banged his forehead on the table.

Flower simply crossed his arms and grumbled. "I knew we shouldn't have eaten yet."

* * *

Anna Arandelle skipped down the path on Campus with her older sister, Elsa, in tow. They had just finished dinner, and though it was a bit late, Anna decided it was worth it. The food was much more delicious than what she usually ate at home. Or maybe it was the way she felt, because she was just so happy that absolutely nothing could ruin her mood.

Anna and Elsa had both attended Walt Disney Academy in their Freshman year the previous year, but due to their parents' over-protectiveness and stubbornness, they were Day students instead. Correction: They were the _only_ day students.

Which was to be expected because WDA was a Boarding school.

She had pretty much spent the entire two months of the summer vacation, pleading and begging with their parents to allow them to stay in the dorms like the rest of the students. They had finally agreed when she promised to obey all the school rules and the set of rules they had drawn out specifically for her. _Only_ her. For some reason, they seemed to think that Anna was not as responsible and trustworthy as her sister, Elsa.

Psh, whatever.

All that didn't matter because she was finally going to be a proper student at the Academy. She would live in the dorms, have a roommate, eat all her meals in school and have various other privileges other students had.

Maybe she could finally experience her first ever sleepover!

And she could go visit her friends' rooms anytime she liked and they could do each other's makeups, play dress up, and paint their nails!

It's not like she's never had friends before. To be honest, she had quite a lot. Unlike her sister, she was actually very good at making friends. But because of her parents' stupid rules, she was not allowed to bring any of them over, and could not visit them either. Even if it were for a project, her parents simply just told her to find time to do them in school, or something.

So really, the only time she ever met up with her friends was in school. Which sometimes made her the odd one out, as she usually missed out on most of their group activities.

But now, all that was going to change.

She could hang out with her friends for as long as she wanted without the supervision of her parents.

And to top it all off, maybe this year she would be able to finally have a boyfriend!

Her parents also had a strict 'No Dating until you graduate rule'.

Like, _ugh_. What was this? The 1960s? And besides, there was no harm in secret dating, was there? After all, those are the kinds of things you're meant to do in high school – make terrible decisions only to regret them years later.

Because really, aren't we all just stupid and naïve teenagers?

Anna glanced at her sister, who was walking beside her with such poise and grace.

Elsa was a teenager, alright. And she was anything but stupid and naïve.

The reason why their parents never directed any of their rules towards Elsa was because she was the ideal daughter. She was very smart, composed, diligent, hardworking, and obedient. She was every parent's wish in their children, and every teacher's dream in a student.

Though because of her quiet and reserved character, Elsa never seemed to make much friends. To be quite honest, it looked more like she _didn't_ want any friends. And if she was not interested in having friends, there was no way she'd want a boyfriend either. Which was most likely why all the rules their parents made were directed towards Anna, and not Elsa.

Elsa was exactly fourteen months older than Anna, and used to be a class above her too. But due to some circumstances, Elsa had repeated the eighth grade and was now in the same grade as Anna. Not that she didn't pass the class or anything, Anna was fairly sure that she had graduated that year at the top of her class. But for reasons unknown to Anna, Elsa had chosen to be held back that year to be with her.

She was still annoyed at Elsa for doing something so stupid, and for apparently no good reason – because if there was a good reason for such a decision, then Anna should have known, right? – but Anna still had no knowledge whatsoever of why Elsa did it, so she chose to believe that Elsa repeated a year just to be in the same grade as her.

And Anna didn't mind. If she were being sincere, she was actually very glad that she and Elsa had ended up in the same grade.

Anna and Elsa used to be best friends when they were little, but when Anna was in the seventh-grade, Elsa suddenly stopped speaking to her.

She only ever spoke to their parents and a few other people, but even at that, she never spoke to anyone unless someone spoke to her first or asked her a question.

But to Anna, she didn't say a word. Not even a 'Good morning' or a mere glance at her direction. She simply treated Anna like she didn't exist.

Elsa and Anna used to share the same bedroom before, but then they stopped once Elsa decided to move out. She always locked herself in her new room. She never let Anna in, and she showed no intentions of wanting to visit Anna in her room either.

It was heart wrenching.

When Elsa had decided to be held back to be in the same grade as Anna, she felt a small ray of hope. Maybe Elsa didn't despise her, after all.

Of course, it took a while for them to start acting somewhat normal around each other.

Over the years, they gradually became more comfortable with each other, and became close again.

While they still weren't as close as they used to be when they were little, they were definitely starting to act like sisters again, and Anna couldn't have been any happier.

Her sister raised an eyebrow once she caught Anna staring. "What?"

Anna just shook her head, a grin still on her face. "Nothing. I'm just still surprised you agreed to stay in school with me. I thought you didn't like Boarding school."

Elsa gave her a small smile. "I don't. But since you're here, it only makes sense that I stay here with you too, right?"

Anna giggled. "Yeah, I guess so," she walked in front of Elsa and started skipping backwards. "I'm really glad we're here."

"Me too." Then Elsa gave her a worried look. "You shouldn't be doing that, you know. It's dangerous."

"Oh, don't worry Els. I'll be fine."

"I'm serious, Anna," Elsa warned. "Stop that now, or you could get seriously hurt."

"Oh stop fretting, Elsa. It's just backwards skipping. I've done it like a million times befor–" at that moment, Anna's right leg hit a rock, and she tripped, falling on the hard ground.

"Anna!" Elsa yelped, and quickly squatted down beside her sister. "Are you alright. Is anything broken? Where does it hurt?" she asked, frantically searching her sister's body for any sign of an injury.

"Calm down, Elsa. I'm fine," Anna said and got off the ground, with help from her sister.

Elsa let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad." Her expression quickly changed and she gave her younger sister an annoyed look. "See? This is what I was warning you about."

Anna refrained from rolling her eyes. Elsa was always like this. "Well, look at me. I'm fine, okay?" she turned around. "Perfectly and wonderfully fine."

"But what if you weren't?" Elsa said angrily. "What if you actually broke a bone or twisted a joint? You're still doing your therapy; you can't afford to get any more injuries!"

"Well, I'll be done with my therapy this month, so I'm perfectly fine!" Anna shot back. "Can you please just stop treating me like I can't take care of myself?"

Elsa sighed. "I know you're capable of taking care of yourself, Anna. It's just…I'm worried, that's all."

Anna smiled and took hold of her sister's hands. "Thank you for worrying about me, you have no idea how happy that makes me feel. But you just have to be able to trust me, okay?"

Elsa smiled back. "Okay," she hugged her sister. "Now let's get to our dorms."

As expected, Anna's eyes lit up at the word 'dorms' and she immediately started skipping and squealing again. "I can't believe we'll be living in a dorm! This year is going to be so great!"

* * *

Sometimes Arthur Pendragon hated his life.

Whenever people heard the name 'Arthur Pendragon', lots of different things usually came to mind.

Some saw him as the grandson of Merlin, the current Mayor of Fantasia. Some others saw him as the future Mayor of Fantasia, illegitimate child.

He had heard it all. All the different names, gossips, and articles written about him. None of them were new to him.

The thing he hated most about his life though, had to be that everyone in Fantasia pretty much knew him.

Knew about him, his sad life story, his pathetic excuse of a father, and his inevitable future as Mayor.

Sometimes he blamed his father. After all, his father was the one that was meant to be the one to take over after Merlin, not him. But his father had been a reckless man. Everyone that knew Uther Pendragon knew him as a shame to the whole of Fantasia. It was no secret that he was a drinker, and had sex with numerous women in his late twenties'. No one knew who Arthur's mother was, and frankly, no one cared. She was just one of the women that slept with his father, and had gone ahead and gotten herself pregnant.

Once Uther found out that he had a son, he did what any man in his situation with an ounce of brain would have done. He dumped Arthur with his own father, Merlin, and fled the continent. No one knew where he went to. Some claimed they spotted him in England, some others said that he went to the States, but Arthur didn't care. He was just glad he was gone. He wouldn't have wanted to have such a man as a father, anyway.

Some other times, Arthur blamed the people of Fantasia. If they knew they didn't want an illegitimate child as a ruler one day, why didn't they just go ahead and change the stupid rule? Honestly, what was wrong with switching to democracy, anyway? Why were they still using the Monarchy System? The Pendragons' had been in charge for decades, what exactly was wrong with them changing it up and actually allowing the people to vote for a change?

That way, they could all stop their annoying whining about not wanting him and actually doing something about it. Especially Madam Mim, since she was always so confident that she could do a better job than Merlin.

They all had the solution right before their eyes, yet they chose to continue complaining.

Honestly, sometimes people were just stupid.

Arthur was thinking about all this as he was unpacking in his room. The room he had in the Freshman Dorms that he'll be staying in for the whole year.

That was another thing.

Arthur did not want to be schooling in Walt Disney Academy.

In fact, he did not want to go to school at all.

All his life he had been having Private lessons with his Tutor, Professor Archimedes. Most people would have hated it to be cooped up in the giant Mansion all day, but he didn't mind. Sure, it got boring at times, but it wasn't necessarily that bad. He had everything he needed and never needed to step foot outside of his house. The only times he went outside was during some of Merlin's conferences that was usually mandatory for him for some unknown reason.

It wasn't like he even did anything during such conferences. Nobody even spoke to him or asked any questions, which he guessed made sense considering he was always the youngest person present in such conferences. All he did was sit down for a few hours in a very uncomfortable chair – with his hair gelled to the back, wearing really uncomfortable suits – in a round table with tons of middle-aged men and a few women, while they talked about things he didn't understand. Sometimes a camera crew for some T.V. News Station would show up and air the entire thing.

So really, when this was how your everyday life was like, you eventually get used to it, and the fact that you have no friends will no longer be painful, instead it would be pretty much normal.

He admits, that when he first arrived at the Academy, he was somewhat happy on some levels. But then, the minute he stepped into the Hall, and the whole place got quiet with everyone eyeing him and silently judging him, he knew he was most definitely not going to enjoy his high school life.

Honestly, he had sat down for barely five minutes when the whispers began:

"Isn't he the future Mayor?"

"This is the first time I'm seeing him without that ridiculous jelled hair."

"Ugh, I bet he's this snobby kid that thinks he's better than everyone else."

"Eww, shouldn't there be like, a school for illegitimate kids only?"

That only made Arthur roll his eyes. They could whisper all they wanted, he wasn't going to stop them. But couldn't they have at least done it _properly_? There wasn't much of a point whispering it if he could still _hear_ them.

The one that angered him the most was:

"I heard that Principal Mickey wanted to suck up to Merlin, so they like, prepared this room for only him and everything. Like, he's in this gigantic room that has its own bathroom, and he doesn't even have a roommate."

Total lie.

His room was the same size as everybody else's, he didn't have his own bathroom, and he had a roommate. A real-life roommate!

Arthur sighed as he fell unto his bed, his eyes wondering over to the empty bed beside his. Where was his roommate, anyway?

Whatever, he was probably avoiding him too. Just like everyone else in this useless school.

Once he was through with unpacking, he grabbed one of his coats and left the room. The minute he got downstairs, the common room – unsurprisingly – became very quiet and all eyes were on him. The blonde simply rolled his eyes and walked out of the room and out of the building.

It was only the first day and the quietness and staring was already getting old.

Arthur wasn't sure of where he was going but he kept on walking anyway. He walked and thought of his dad, his grandpa, his pathetic life, the people at school and the rest of Fantasia.

In other words, they weren't happy thoughts.

Except maybe the one about his grandfather. Merlin was probably the only one in the world Arthur didn't hate. He and Professor Archimedes.

After about fifteen minutes of walking aimlessly, Arthur found a wooden bench beside a water fountain that looked like it hadn't been used in a while. Without a second thought, Arthur quickly went over and sat down. He closed his eyes and was almost drifting off to sleep, when he heard a girl's voice.

"Excuse me."

Arthur ignored it, and simply shrugged it off as the person talking on her phone or something. After all, no one had tried to engage in a conversation with him since he stepped foot into the school, so why start now?

A moment of silence passed by, and he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. "Excuse me," the person said again.

Oh? She was talking to him?

Arthur opened his eyes and saw a short blonde girl holding what looked like an orange ball, standing beside the bench.

"What?" he asked in an irritated tone. He really wasn't in the mood for anyone's nonsense right now.

The girl didn't seem to notice the irritation in his voice and smiled warmly at him. "Is it okay if I sit here with you?"

Arthur frowned and looked around. "There's another bench over there."

Her smile didn't leave her face. "I saw. But sitting alone is rather boring, so I was wondering if you wouldn't mind if I sat here with you."

Was this girl for real?

Arthur shrugged. "You can sit here if you want."

She beamed at him and sat down. It wasn't until that moment that Arthur noticed what she was wearing. She had on a light blue nightgown that looked too thin for her to be wearing outdoors by this time without a coat or a jacket.

"Why aren't you wearing a coat?" he asked her.

The girl looked down at herself. "I'm not? _That's_ why I was feeling rather cold. And here I was hoping winter was coming early this year."

Arthur just gave her a puzzled look. "It's September."

She nodded. "I know. Imagine how much fun it would be for winter to come by this time. Then again, it probably wouldn't be fair to the other seasons. I happen to like Autumn very much, and I wouldn't want to shorten its season just so winter could come early. Don't you think?"

Arthur blinked. This girl was…strange. "Uh…I suppose?"

She grinned at him again, then looked straight ahead, swinging her feet. That was when he noticed something else.

"Why aren't you wearing shoes?"

The girl looked down surprised, just like she had done before. "Oh, silly me. I must've forgotten. My sister keeps saying I would forget my head if it weren't attached to my head. But I don't think I'm _that_ forgetful. After all, my head does contain very important things. Like my eyes to see, my nose to smell, and my mouth to talk. There's no way I'd be able to forget any of those things. Then again, a coat and shoes are rather important, aren't they? So maybe Mathilda is right, after all. It would be funny, though. Me walking around without a head. Anyone walking around without a head would be a funny sight, wouldn't it?"

Arthur could only stare.

Yep. This girl was an oddball.

The first person to talk to him in this school was probably the strangest person that ever lived.

But if he were being honest, he was actually happy to have her as a company.

"I wouldn't know," he shrugged. "I'd much rather not see a headless person."

She looked thoughtful. "Hmm, I guess so. While it might be funny to some extent, it would be rather gory."

Arthur couldn't help but chuckle. "I guess you could say that," he looked around at her only to find the girl…patting her ball? Arthur looked at the ball closely only to find out that it was fur. "Is that…is that a cat?"

The girl smiled and held her cat up. "Yes, this is Dinah. My best friend since I was little."

"I thought pets weren't allowed in this school."

"They aren't," the girl sighed. "But I can't imagine life without Dinah so I snuck her in."

Arthur smiled. "You and your pet are that close, huh?"

"Oh, yes we are. We've gone through numerous adventures together," Alice held up her cat in his face. "Do you want to pet her?"

Arthur shook his head. "No thanks, I'm not really an animal person."

For the first time since he met her, the girl frowned. "What do you mean? Everyone is an animal person."

He chuckled. "Trust me, I'm not."

"Oh, okay," she said as she put her cat back in her arms. "I hope you become an animal person soon, though. Animals are a lovely company."

He chuckled again. "I guess."

They stayed like that in silence, and a while later, it started to drizzle. Arthur stood up. "I think we should get going."

The girl looked up. "Why?"

"Because a heavy rain might start soon."

She smiled again. "I don't mind. I like the rain."

"Is there anything you don't like?" he asked.

She thought for a moment. "School," she said simply.

Arthur all but laughed. Okay, he takes everything he said about this girl being weird and an oddball. Right now, she was his favorite person in the world. Besides, Merlin and Prof. Archimedes that is. "Same here," he told her and took her gently by the arm. "Come on now, the rain is starting to get heavy. I know you like the rain and all, but you wouldn't want to catch a cold, would you?"

She scrunched up her nose. "No. That's another thing I don't like. Falling sick."

Together they both walked quickly back to the dorms, with Arthur holding his coat over the both of them so they wouldn't get too wet. He walked the girl to the Freshman Girls Dorms, feeling somewhat happy to find out that she was a Freshman just like him.

"Thank you for walking me here," the girl said when they both stood in front of the building. "Are you sure you would be fine getting back to your dorm on your own?"

Arthur smiled. "Don't worry, it's just over there," he reassured her. "Barely a five-second walk."

She smiled back.

Arthur turned to leave, but stopped and turned back to face her. "I didn't catch your name."

"That's because I never threw it," she giggled.

He laughed. "Right, right…so, your name…?"

"It's Alice," she said. "Alice Liddell. What's yours?"

He gave her a puzzled look. "What?"

"I asked you what your name was."

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Was this a joke? "You really don't know what my name is?"

"Um…no. Should I?"

Arthur laughed again. This girl was coming close to beating Prof. Archimedes as his second favorite person in the world. "No, never mind. Forget I said anything," he said. "My name's Arthur Pendragon."

"Nice to meet you, Arthur."

As Arthur trekked back to his own dorm, he couldn't stop smiling.

Sure, he still hated this school, and sometimes wished he wasn't 'Arthur Pendragon: Illegitimate child and Future Mayor', but right now, he figured that didn't matter.

He was going to forget about his horrible past and he wasn't going to think about his inevitable future.

He was sick of being gloomy and sad, and being judged for what his name was.

He realized this was the first time he had had a conversation with someone that he almost felt…normal. Sure, his encounter with Alice was anything but normal – he still couldn't believe that they had talked about headless people – but he actually felt nice.

Almost… _happy_. And he hadn't felt like that in a while, that much was certain. And he liked the feeling. So much that he wanted to keep on feeling that way, every day for the rest of his life. Or the school year, at least.

That was then he decided. This year, his freshman year at Walt Disney Academy, was going to be the best year of his life.

And he would make sure of it.

* * *

 **Answers To Guest Reviews :)**

Demi Brackensick _on Chapter 1_ : I'm really glad you liked Flynn and Esmeralda's introduction. I enjoyed writing them so it's nice to see that it was appreciated =D Thanks for the review!

Guest _on Chapter 2_ : I'm happy that my story made you laugh. Humor is one of the genres of this story, but sometimes when I read over my chapters, I cringe and think that I'm trying a bit too hard to make it funny. I'm glad you liked it, though and I hope you like this chapter as well. Thanks for reviewing!

* * *

 **Author's Note**

 **o** Don't even ask how I came up with the idea of Lady and Phoebus. It made sense at the time, and I'm not even sure why. On a more sane note, I adored the Lady and the Tramp movie and I have a couple of things planned out for the main characters, so look out for that ;)  
PS: Madam Mim is the female witch from The Sword in the Stone; Flik and Atta are from the Pixar movie, A Bugs' Life.

 **o** I am not a guy, and I don't have any brothers. If the way I wrote Chip and Adam seemed a little forced to you, I apologize. I pretty much used my imagination for that entire scene, but I hope you liked it anyway.

 **o** I really liked writing Mulan, Ariel and Jim. Mulan and Ariel are often depicted as best friends, so I hope adding Jim into the circle was somewhat original. If you remember, this friendship was hinted at by Bobby in the first chapter :P

 **o** When I was re-reading my fist chapter, I noticed I didn't really expand more on the Tiana-Flynn-Aladdin friendship. I only mentioned that they were best friends and that was it. I tried to make this chapter focus more on that but I don't think I really succeeded. At least we got to see Tiana's thought about it XD

 **o** Yay, the Bambi gang! These guys are obviously not main characters and I really don't have a specific plot drawn out for them, but they will show up once in a while. They are just a group of five friends where Bambi and Faline are always shy and cute around each other, Thumper is the one with the biggest mouth, Flower is the shy cutie, and Ronno is the arrogant guy that no one really likes.

 **o** The main plot of Frozen was the sisterly bond between Anna and Elsa (with Olaf, Kristoff and Sven being total cuties in the background). So, I'm going to try and focus a bit more on the strained relationship the two girls have, and I hope you'll enjoy my take on that :)

 **o** I hadn't planned on making Arthur sound like a sadist, believe me, that's Adam's job. But I guess we'll just have to see where I'm going with his character ;)  
PS: Writing Alice is so much fun.  
PPS: Merlin is the Mayor of Fantasia...yeah...this was the best I could think of when I was trying to form a plot for Arthur, so please tell me what you think about it.

 **Side Note** : I think I should have also named this chapter 'Where everyone is hungry'. Would be quite fitting, don't you think? XD And you may have noticed, I adjusted the ages of the characters to fit the plot of my story. For example, Chip isn't a little boy anymore and is only two years younger than Adam; and Anna and Elsa are only fourteen months apart. I hope none of you were peeved by this.

 **Also** this story is finally moving forward as I've introduced quite a few Disney Princesses now. Belle and Pocahontas are also showing up in the next chapter. Yay for progress! \\(^o^)/

 **PS:** I re-read the last chapter and noticed that I'm a big idiot for mentioning the Disney film, 'Descendants' all in the name of making a lame joke about purple hair. So when you read that, let's just pretend that the characters like Belle and Sleeping Beauty in the movie just happened to have the same name as the characters in this story. After all, you guys must have watched a few movies where the characters had your names. I know I have.

~Till the next time I update, and have a nice day!


	5. Important Notice

Hello, Good People of the Internet.  
YooniquelyOresum here.

Gosh, where do I start?

First of all, I never in the life of me dreamed that I would ever do something like this. In short, by the time my next chapter comes up, this one would obviously be taken down. The reason why I'm writing this is because I haven't updated this story in about six months, which is basically half of a whole year. And I just want to use this medium to say that I am truly sorry for the huge delay.

As life would have it, I have been immensely busy with school, work, family stuff and a whole bunch of other personal issues. But I know none of that are hardly excuses for my procrastination, and I apologize. In case you're wondering: No, I didn't forget this story and I don't plan on ditching it either. I've just being really busy (and a bit - A LOT - lazy) to write more chapters.

I'm not saying that I'm going to be any less busy. In fact, the way things are going, it looks like I'll become even busier. But I can promise one thing: I will find time to continue writing this story. As much as I like you guys to read and enjoy my take on the classic 'Disney High' plot, I personally enjoy writing this story. Plus I made a promise to myself to finish this fic no matter what, and I intend to keep that promise.

The next chapter is still in the works, but it's going to take some more time before it's done, since I've stopped writing for quite a while and need to brush up on my writing skills, and refresh my memory of the different plots.

BUT, I would estimate that the next chapter will come out in about two weeks? I sincerely hope it would be less, but I guess only time can tell :)

To end this rather boring speech, I would like to thank you all for reading. reviewing, favoriting and following this story. You have no idea how much that means to me. And if I haven't replied to your reviews yet, I promise I would get right on that as soon as I can.

Please be patient with me, and I'll see you all in the next chapter.

~Till then, and have a nice day!


	6. The Next Chapter (But not really)

**Hello...it's been a while. I'm not even sure if anyone is reading this story anymore. Either way, I'm back...sort of. I haven't written for this story in almost a year, so my writing is a bit rusty. I decided that instead of making you guys wait any longer, I should at least share the little I have. This is a short sample or draft of what the next chapter will be and I will most likely take this down when the next chapter is finished. So if any of you noticed this isn't my typical uselessly long chapter, just know that it's mostly just one-tenth of the actual length of the full chapter.**

 **Hope you like it :)**

* * *

The Auditorium was beautifully decorated…as usual. It looked the exact same way it had for decades. With all the different students of different heights and ages sitting on the dark navy-blue chairs arranged in an orderly fashion of rows and columns; the staff – academic and non – all seated at the high tables on the small but gorgeous-looking stage; the Press scattered around the large room filming the on-going Assembly…for whatever reasons.

Pocahontas Matoaka frowned as a certain Camera-man pointed the camera in her direction. She made a show of putting on a disgusted face before she pointedly looked away. She never understood why Principal Mickey allowed the Press to step foot on the school grounds. Was it really anybody's business what happened at the Assembly? It was pretty much the same as any other school's – _uneventful_.

The Principal would give the same speech (though somehow, Mickey managed to write a new speech each year and as far as she knew, he didn't use any of the old Principals' speeches either. Pocahontas had to admit that was quite impressive), the Freshmen and new students were welcomed, the Scholarship students were introduced, the Prefects were appointed, and they were all told to behave themselves as they entered the new school year. And that was it. Nothing different, nothing spectacular, and nothing remotely _interesting_.

Which was why the Press pissed her off to no end. They didn't even have a decent reason as to why they should even be here – other than the fact that they had a sick thrill in butting into the students' affairs, of course.

"Mind telling me why you look ready to kill someone when the Assembly hasn't even started yet?" the voice of Pocahontas' best friend, Nakoma Sahni, sounded through her ears.

Pocahontas blinked and turned to face her caramel skinned best friend who was seated on the chair beside her, looking at her with a raised eye-brow and a light smirk forming on her lips. Though the small hint of concern on her delicate features was not lost to Pocahontas.

She sighed. "It's nothing. Guess I'm just in a cranky mood, is all."

Nakoma's eye-brow got higher. "How is that even possible? Today marks the first day as us being seniors officially, which means we'll soon get to leave this dreadful place. You should be elated."

"And why is that?" Pocahontas asked. "We've been trained all our lives for this day. Go to a good Elementary school, then a good Middle School, graduate WDA with a high CGPA and as many official positions you could snag during your stay, get accepted into an Ivy League or any other Prestigious University that comes close, then take over our Parents' business once we're of age." Pocahontas sighed as she threaded her long dark locks with her fingers. "As far as I know, today marks the beginning of all that nonsense we'll face after we graduate. And I'm so not looking forward to that."

Nakoma looked thoughtful and they sat in silence for a while. Then she gave a small chuckle. "What a way to dampen my mood."

Pocahontas chuckled back. "Sorry, but it's your fault for asking."

Nakoma nudged her in the arm playfully. "So, what do you wanna do? Run away and skip College altogether?"

"Well…not really," Pocahontas said. "I know I'll have to do all those things eventually, but I just want some time to myself, I guess."

"Well, the only option I see is if you take a year off after graduation, but I highly doubt your dad will let you defer all the admissions you'll get for you to do that," Nakoma said. "The only other option is if you use this year to slack off since you've pretty much accomplished what you'll need–"

Nakoma stopped abruptly when she saw her best friend's eyes light up. "No no, I did _not_ say that for you to actually go through with it!" Nakoma tried frantically to stop any ideas that could be formulating in Pocahontas' head. But alas, it was all in vain. For when Pocahontas gets an idea in her mind, there is no stopping her until she gets what she wants. Nakoma had learnt that the hard way.

"Why does Pocahontas have that look on her face she gets when she's about to blow something up?" a female voice said in a British accent.

Pocahontas stopped her thinking in favor of glaring at the newcomer who promptly sat beside Nakoma. "Shush Jane, that was _one_ time."

"Are we talking about that day Pocahontas 'accidentally' blew up the microwave in the Home Ec. Lab during sophomore year?" a second voice joined them. "You can say all you want Pokey but we all know that incident was _not_ an accident."

Pocahontas rolled her eyes. "It's funny how after _three years_ , you're still trying to get that nickname to stick, _Kida_."

Kida smirked as she took the seat on her other side. "Oh, it will stick eventually."

Nakoma shook her head. "Don't you think you're being a bit childish by trying to get back at her just because she got everyone to call you Kida?"

Kida scoffed. "She knows how much I despise nicknames. I think it's only fair that I get back at her since she has a similarly unusual long-ass name."

Pocahontas laughed as she sat crossed-legged on her chair. "I don't despise my nickname though, I only think it sounds stupid. Whereas yours actually sounds nice. If anything, you should be _grateful_ that I gave you a nice name instead of the mouthful you prefer for some reason."

Kida looked like she was about to reply, but Jane intervened. "Okay girls, that's enough. We are not going to start the new school year with you two at each other's throat."

"You're right, Jane," Kida said as she turned to look at Pocahontas with a devilish grin. "I have plenty of time during the school year to bring dear Pokey down."

"Looking forward to it," Pocahontas grinned back.

Jane groaned and looked to Nakoma's direction for support, only to find her staring off into space with a lovestruck expression on her face. Jane turned to look at where Nakoma was facing and she immediately understood. "Ogling Kocoum again, hmm?" she teased.

Nakoma blinked and looked away, the faintest hint of pink adorning her cheeks.

"Kocoum? Where?" Pocahontas said, breaking off the staring contest she and Kida were having.

Once she saw the handsome Senior, he immediately turned around and met her gaze. He gave a small polite nod in her direction and turned back to continue conversing with his ever-present companion, Hans Westerguard.

"Will things ever stop being weird between you two?" Kida asked once that little exchange was over.

"I highly doubt it," Pocahontas said with a small sigh.

Kocoum Atwal and Pocahontas were…well, in one word… _engaged_. It wasn't really something unusual, but that didn't mean she was completely okay with it either. It was something they both new would happen since they were kids and they weren't the least bit surprised when their parents had finally made it official in their Freshman year.

Pocahontas honestly stopped caring a long time ago. She didn't let the fact that she was engaged disrupt her personal life. She had dated other guys over the course of high school – all of which her father hadn't approved (no surprise there), and she really didn't have much of a problem with marrying Kocoum.

He was handsome, sophisticated, friendly enough, and of course the marriage would lead to a huge merger between both their father's companies, so really, she understood. And there was the small fact that he actually seemed to care about her, and they _had_ been friends since they were little, so Pocahontas considered her situation much better than those that were paired off with complete strangers.

She guessed the major problem here was that…well…Nakoma was in love with Kocoum. That went without saying. Pretty much anyone with eyes knew that much. Pocahontas had tried her best to act oblivious to it since it was quite obvious her best friend had no intentions of telling her of her feelings. Though, Pocahontas knew she would have to confront her sooner or later and talk about it – she was so not looking forward to that conversation though, and was willing to push it off as far as she could.

Pocahontas sighed as she saw her best friend glancing back at her future partner.

Sadly, she knew she couldn't push off the conversation for much longer.

* * *

 **The past couple of years have been somewhat hard and weird and a bit depressing. I'm trying to find my bearings again, and hopefully I'll be able to continue with smooth updates in no time.**

~Please review and have a nice day!


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